- Joined
- May 18, 1999
- Messages
- 15,395
I have had it with the slightly too large handle on my GRS Friendship model khukuri.
While cutting some firewood for our little chimenera(sp) the other night to cook some hotdogs the GRS decided to take a flying leap out of my hands and go sailing beneath my feet as I made a high jump that olympic jumpers would have been proud of. This wasn't the first time this has happened.
I should have known better to use a knife of this size when being tired at the end of a day.
The handle "wasn't" that much too "large", just large enough for me not too get a really comfortable grip on it for heavy or long term work, let alone using it when tired. I have noticed that the handles are also more oval than egg shaped. I have wondered lately if the egg shape might not be a better idea for a tighter grip.
I started out with a halfround medium rasp
as I didn't want or have to remove "that" much material and I also didn't want to get to heavy with a coarse rasp and have more scratches to sand out.
After working the handle down to size with
frequent checking of the grip to fit my hand I wound up with sort of a egg shape with more of a rounded point at the bottom and thinner along the sides. It perhaps is more like a triangle shape, with a large radius at the top and a smaller one at the bottom, than an egg shape, but you probably know what I mean.
I took off quite a bit of material behind the ring and gave the part that goes up to the butt cap even more radius, actually more of a bell shape.
In front of the rings I took more material off the sides than I did the top or bottom.
While I was at it I put in the groove between the butt cap and wood or horn that I like. The wood doesn't shrink as much as the horn had been lately.
The groove does make a nice way to get rid of any sharp burrs at the edge of the butt cap where it joins the wood and makes rounding the sharp ends of the butt cap easier for me.
You can also make the edge of the brass
rounded as well leaveing it almost impossible to get hurt on it any longer.
After getting the feel I wanted and restoring the grooves I started with 80 grit paper, graduatng to 150, 220 and then 400 wet or dry paper.
I finished up with boiled linseed oil. This brought out the beautiful grain of the rosewood.
The ends of my fingers just almost touch my palm now when gripping the handle. There was about a 3/8" gap between them before I started.
The grip is much more comfortable and secure. If I lose the grip on it again it will be entirely my fault and not the over size handle.
Uncle Bill wondered on one of his posts something about what the kamis would say if they knew how many of us modified their handles.
I think they would be smileing that they have customers that can fix their knives to fit them.
It's also a good reason to keep the oversize handles coming on the bigger khukuris at least.
------------------
>>>>---¥vsa---->®
"There's no trick in being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you."
...............Will Rogers......
Khukuri FAQ
While cutting some firewood for our little chimenera(sp) the other night to cook some hotdogs the GRS decided to take a flying leap out of my hands and go sailing beneath my feet as I made a high jump that olympic jumpers would have been proud of. This wasn't the first time this has happened.
I should have known better to use a knife of this size when being tired at the end of a day.
The handle "wasn't" that much too "large", just large enough for me not too get a really comfortable grip on it for heavy or long term work, let alone using it when tired. I have noticed that the handles are also more oval than egg shaped. I have wondered lately if the egg shape might not be a better idea for a tighter grip.
I started out with a halfround medium rasp
as I didn't want or have to remove "that" much material and I also didn't want to get to heavy with a coarse rasp and have more scratches to sand out.
After working the handle down to size with
frequent checking of the grip to fit my hand I wound up with sort of a egg shape with more of a rounded point at the bottom and thinner along the sides. It perhaps is more like a triangle shape, with a large radius at the top and a smaller one at the bottom, than an egg shape, but you probably know what I mean.
I took off quite a bit of material behind the ring and gave the part that goes up to the butt cap even more radius, actually more of a bell shape.
In front of the rings I took more material off the sides than I did the top or bottom.
While I was at it I put in the groove between the butt cap and wood or horn that I like. The wood doesn't shrink as much as the horn had been lately.
The groove does make a nice way to get rid of any sharp burrs at the edge of the butt cap where it joins the wood and makes rounding the sharp ends of the butt cap easier for me.
You can also make the edge of the brass
rounded as well leaveing it almost impossible to get hurt on it any longer.
After getting the feel I wanted and restoring the grooves I started with 80 grit paper, graduatng to 150, 220 and then 400 wet or dry paper.
I finished up with boiled linseed oil. This brought out the beautiful grain of the rosewood.
The ends of my fingers just almost touch my palm now when gripping the handle. There was about a 3/8" gap between them before I started.
The grip is much more comfortable and secure. If I lose the grip on it again it will be entirely my fault and not the over size handle.
Uncle Bill wondered on one of his posts something about what the kamis would say if they knew how many of us modified their handles.
I think they would be smileing that they have customers that can fix their knives to fit them.
It's also a good reason to keep the oversize handles coming on the bigger khukuris at least.
------------------
>>>>---¥vsa---->®
"There's no trick in being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you."
...............Will Rogers......
Khukuri FAQ
