Advice on Project Khukri

drbarnes

drbarnes

Joined
Sep 13, 2010
Messages
1,673
I was lucky enough to score this sweet AK in the deal of the day:

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I knew it was going to be a project - rehandling. So I got it in the mail today and think the blade is sweet! next to my Sgt Khadka bonecutter it is looking very good!

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But when I swing it the handle rattles, and shifts back and forth a little bit. So without wasting any time I drilled out half of the metal pin in the handle and punched the other half out!

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My questions: The handle is still attached! I tried pulling on it, and it moves more now than when the metal pin was in but still will not let go. I read that they may also be held on with an epoxy? And you can boil the handle and loosening up the epoxy. Does this really work? The handle is a cool carving and I would like to save it if at all possible, maybe put it on top of a walking stick, replace the stick shift in my truck or something.

When I get the handle off and can get a clear view of the tang I will be able to proceed and decide what kind of handle to put on.

I have a couple ideas rolling around in my head, one is to go to the woodcraft store down the street and pick out a really nice piece of burl wood. This option would be very pretty - but I would rather have my knives ugly and functional. Another Idea would be to use a camp axe/ hatchet handle cut down to size with a nice curve to it if I can get it properly secured. My final idea was to get some horse stall mat like is seen on competition chopping knives to cushion the handle and make it a heck of a comfortable hard hitting user. What do you think would be best?

David
 
The handle is probably still being held in place by the laha under the bolster. Boiling will probably loosen it enough to pull off the tang. If that fails, the old tried and true is to simply lay the handle on a hard surface such as an anvil and carefully break the handle off the tang by hitting it with a hammer, which will fracture the wood and free it from the knife.

Andy
 
Andy's spot on:) The tip of the tang could also be burned into the grip as well. I'm not sure if the HI kamis seat the blade hot or not, but I have heard of villager kamis joining up the hand and blade tang of partial knives by attaching the handles while the tang is still hot.

I'm guessing the boiling trick would work just fine. Like Andy said, the laha under the bolster is probably the culprit if the blade is wiggling around.
 
drbarnes-boiling is the usual way of loosening the laha like Andrew and Steely are telling you. BUT from what I've read, it is a stinky process. So if you have a significant other you may want to do this outside and not in her AllClad...just a thought. Let us know how your project goes and best of luck.
 
if you want to avoid boiling the handle you might try cutting the wood down to the tang above the bolster and see if you can pull the rest of the handle off the tang without the bolster there to help hold it on, you could then boil off the rest of the handle without affecting the majority of the carved part
 
I boiled the handle and it worked! It came off in one piece, now I see what I have to work with:

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Its got some nasty gunk up under the bolster that splattered all over the kitchen, but I got it cleaned up before my wife saw.

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I have about 4" of tang to work with

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So now my task is to make a handle. I have it narrowed down to either using a replacement axe handle and cutting it down to size or getting some horse stall mat and shaping that.
 
what sort of axe handle do you have in mind? I'm imagining a khukuri with a 10" hatchet handle on it and I'm really liking the idea, but is 4" of tang enough for something like that?
 
drbarnes said:
...So now my task is to make a handle. I have it narrowed down to either using a replacement axe handle and cutting it down to size or getting some horse stall mat and shaping that.
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I'm not sure how well the horse stall mat would work for a non-chiruwa handle.

For a wood handle, are you planning to split the wood, carve out a recess in one side to fit the tang into it (flush with the split surface), then epoxy the two halves together along with a new pin, then finish shaping the wood to fit your hand?

An axe handle or old baseball bat should work, though I think you can find a better looking piece of wood somewhere. Here's a handle I made from a piece of firewood I found in my stack:

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from http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/788379-Khuk-rehandle-using-firewood-couple-nails-no-electricity
 
Ew, dont like the fact that it has a thick rat tail for a tang.

*Note to self* Order only full tang from HI.
 
OldeWolf said:
Ew, dont like the fact that it has a thick rat tail for a tang.

*Note to self* Order only full tang from HI.
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I think you will find that H.I.'s "rat-tail" tang is quite durable.
With the exception of the Hanuman and a couple others, all H.I could be considered 'full tang", meaning that all are peened thru the buttcap. We call the full exposed tang models "Chiruwa" to avoid confusion.
 
Karda said:
I think you will find that H.I.'s "rat-tail" tang is quite durable.
With the exception of the Hanuman and a couple others, all H.I could be considered 'full tang", meaning that all are peened thru the buttcap. We call the full exposed tang models "Chiruwa" to avoid confusion.
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Thank you for the reply but I have to ask, I've always thought and was told that "full tang" means full bodily shown metal all the way through and that rat tail is the narrowing of the metal (hence "rat tail" looking) which was shown above, so why would it be considered "full tang" when it's visually not?

I will be sure to make orders with Chiruwa involved from now on. Thank you for that!
 
OldeWolf said:
Thank you for the reply but I have to ask, I've always thought and was told that "full tang" means full bodily shown metal all the way through and that rat tail is the narrowing of the metal (hence "rat tail" looking) which was shown above, so why would it be considered "full tang" when it's visually not?

I will be sure to make orders with Chiruwa involved from now on. Thank you for that!
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It is in the differences in language and nomenclature between the western and nepali worlds. A hundred years or so ago, you would not see any chiruwa style handles, the khukuri did fine without the added handle strength for hundreds of years before the idea was born. Most all khukuri were partial rat tail tang before WWII.
The term full tang really is a western term for fully exposed tang. Nepalis consider it a full tang if the tang is peened thru the buttcap. Westerners only consider it a full tang if the tang is the same width as the handle and is exposed.
 
just as the K-bar is considered to have a full tang because it traverses the entirety of the handle and is pinned at the pommel, you can consider the traditional khukuri to be full tang as well
 
Karda said:
It is in the differences in language and nomenclature between the western and nepali worlds. A hundred years or so ago, you would not see any chiruwa style handles, the khukuri did fine without the added handle strength for hundreds of years before the idea was born. Most all khukuri were partial rat tail tang before WWII.
The term full tang really is a western term for fully exposed tang. Nepalis consider it a full tang if the tang is peened thru the buttcap. Westerners only consider it a full tang if the tang is the same width as the handle and is exposed.
Click to expand...

That might be the case but I'm a literal guy so when I saw that it had the characteristic of a "rat tail" tang, I cannot stop the thinking process of it being of such shape based on observation so therefore it's not to me a full tang. A full tang by literal functional definition and not cultural definition is one of full metal tang all through the handle. I'm sorry but my perspectives will not be based on language or cultural views but on functional practical views.

But thank you for giving me more details/background for this as I now know to order all HI items with chiruwa/full tang included.

Issun said:
just as the K-bar is considered to have a full tang because it traverses the entirety of the handle and is pinned at the pommel, you can consider the traditional khukuri to be full tang as well
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If that's how it's defined by you than by such definition, all rat tangs are full tangs as it traverses most the way through the handle just like "traditional" HI products. As you can see, that's why I don't consider it full tang but a "rat tail" tang. It would be like calling a Yaris car a truck because it has an engine.
 
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