Blem -- 18" AK by Murali -- perfect but cracked handle. Pix & deal.

Bill Martino

Bill Martino

Joined
Mar 5, 1999
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Here's an 18 inch 22 ounce fairly light and quick AK by Murali. He's got the blade right up around 60 Rc and it'll take a hair or two off the arm. It's a 10/10 effort with a cracked handle. Good karda and chakma. Same old village sarki scabbard and frog in new leather.

Good to see Murali back at work.

I'll try to get a pix of the handle so you'll see what you are up against.

The handle saves you $50. Take it home for $95.

Call or email.
 

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The experts will probably jump all over me, but if this were mine I would drill several holes along the side of the crack, and dowel the two would be parts of handle together anticipating hard use. I would probably pick a dark wood dowel, but if done right an extra light wood might even be attractive in the same way rivets can be.

but I'm a barbarian, liking utility and finding it beautifull.

munk
 
If you can by thin enough ones that is a good idea. It might be a bit messey but those and epoxy would do a pretty good job. Just wait for the epoxy to dry and use a fine cut file to remove the excess. Works for me

Seems to me they would have to be a bit smaller than 1/4 inch. I may try before too long and see just how small I can make some on the lathe.
:)
 
Pappy, they make dowel as slender as the ink tube on a bic pen.

munk
 
It might be fun to try the old barn-building trick, putting a square peg in a round hole.

Although I suppose it would be superfluous with epoxy, and might stress things out a bit. Then again, barns hold up pretty good. They must've been doing something right.
 
Epoxy is the answer. The handle is stabilized and won't go anywhere but it'll look better with the crack filled, especially if you go to the trouble of putting some like colored wood filler in with the epoxy.
 
That and if you clamp the handle with automotive hose clamps I think that crack will close up to near invisible thickness.
 
Will you listen to these guys?!! They're way over my head, using syringe, scapel and clamps to save the life of the patient.
munk
 
Good conditioning with a natural oil such as linseed oil will close up the crack as the wood gets re-moisterized. Ive had bigger cracks close up on 100 plus year old handles. Just takes alota time, and repitition though. Took one real big crack 8 months of daily libations to close up. Have to say its worth it though.
 
munk's confession:

I've refinished various things in my life. I like wood, and the job by hand. When I got my chitlangi, however, I oiled it. That's all. I didn't sand it down, concern myself with red stuff, buff and treat with a hard outer coat. Oil. Most red stuff came off and I oiled some more. It will be interesting to see what happens.

I'd decide if the crack has the potential to split and make a decision to go epoxy or oil. If all failed later down the line with hard use, there is always dowel, heck, or even dove tail...I've seen gun stocks so well done they were even more beautiful after repair than before, and stronger. Or...sacralidge...make my own handle. I've made Ruger single action grips before, why not Khukuri?

munk
 
Originally posted by Bill Martino
putting some like colored wood filler in with the epoxy.
Click to expand...

Never thought of wood filler material, surprises me that it works with the glues and whatever other materials in it.

Dad was a model maker (balsa R/C planes) and always used balsa dust in glue to fill his cracks.
Once I found the need I started using plain wood dust in epoxy.
In the cracked horn handled BAS I acquired recently I used ebony dust (for darkness) in epoxy to fill in the groove I scratched into the crack. Tiny bit of epoxy, lots of dust.

I was tempted to use silver or brass filings to set off the repair.
A potter once told me how in Japan when a nice piece of ceramic is cemented back together, they often use silver or gold color to show the repair.
 
Saw dust with glue is always a good way to hide a seam, also seems to make joints hold together better. Still I prefer to see how much conditioning will fix, before I think about gluing. I used to glue before as the primary fix, but depending where and what the crack is Ive had problems with re-cracking around the joint. The crack if caused by dryness, or dry rot, as is frequent with real old wood or wood that's had a big climate change, aka from real humid to real dry, seems to benefits more from conditioning since it deals with the original problem dryness. Re-gluing a dry-rot crack while in the short run will fix the crack in the longer run does not deal with the weakened dry wood, aka the potential to re-crack. Also oil based finishes that penetrate wood will weaken glue joints, so if the handle is being re-finished after gluing again the potential to re-crack. Also a good oil mix will penetrate into the wood far deeper than any glue/epoxy blend. Just my 2 bits though.
 
I wouldn't know where to start looking for that sort of product in the whole county where I live.
Maybe at Home Depot when they get it built?:)
 
Originally posted by Pappy
I wouldn't know where to start looking for that sort of product
Click to expand...
Grocery: Smallest bamboo skewers, wood manicure sticks, sticks in caramel/candy apple making kits, stem of paper drink umbrellas, some round toothpicks, cheap bamboo and wood chopsticks in oriental food section, ???

Hobby shops carry these smaller diameter dowels in 3ft lengths.

Large wood matchsticks (or small splits of wood) rubbed/rolled between two pieces of fine sandpaper.

Old-time pegs were made sometimes by pushing wood splits down over a corer type setup.
For smaller scale one might sharpen a small metal tubing then punch or drill it down into a split of wood.
I've used sharpened brass tubes to drill around a broken screw when nothing else was available. I think woodshops sell coring drills to make pegs, but those are for larger diameter.

I've sometimes just scraped down a odd bit of wood to get the size and shape I needed.

Good Luck
Dean
 
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