Horn vs. Wood Handles

Thomas Linton

Thomas Linton

Joined
Jun 16, 2003
Messages
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Enlighten me, please. What are the respective benefits of horn handles vs. wood handles on Khukuris? Seems like wood is easier to work with and maintain. Horn certainly looks nice.

TAL
 
Both are nice and "warm" feeling due to being natural materials as opposed to micarta or other synthetics. Either is actually easy to work with. Horn may be slipperier when wet, but a good grip can help that. Have had more wood handles crack and require repair than Horn.
 
Horn provides the better grip IMHO, but wood does not need that much maintenance and tolerates extreme dry heat (desert climate - or the inside of your car in the summer) :rolleyes: better (it does not shrink).
I find it easier to adjust a wooden grip if it does not fit my hand perfectly: Horn is nicer and more traditional of course.

Andreas
 
I prefer wood myself. Easier for me to work with to adjsut, as already mentioned, and canlook just as nice if not mroe so. Working on a stacked bocote one now which already looks like it's going to ahve some beautiful grain going perpendicular the the spine of the blade. Hopefully will put first piece of bocote on today,a nd then brass/plastic spacers tomorrow
 
Well, I just fixed a crack in a horn handle and now I can't find where it was. It has disappeared! Just used epoxy and then sanded and polished it out so looks unaltered and good as new. You can do similar things with wood but have not been able to "hide" repairs as well as with horn.
 
Uncle Bill pointed out a while back that horn is waterproof and wood isn't. Therefore if you are likely to get the khuk covered with gore, such as while cleaning fish or dressing wild game, you might be better off with a horn handled khuk which can be more easily "washed up."

However, firewood and brush don't bleed much and a wood-handled khuk which is more elegant in appearance would be fine for that.

Either material responds well to sandpaper and it seems to me that horn which has been sanded with 400 grit is more non-slip when wet than a wood handle glossed up with 15+ coats of tru-oil. It is probably not a bad idea to get both types of handles on your favorite size khuk, if you ever figure out what that is.
 
Originally posted by Thomas Linton
Enlighten me, please. What are the respective benefits of horn handles vs. wood handles on Khukuris? Seems like wood is easier to work with and maintain. Horn certainly looks nice.

TAL
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Thomas I have had more horn handles go flying out of my hand due to being more slippery than wood.:grumpy:
However I've had more wood handles go flying due to being way oversize than I have horn, but that is just a reflection on the model of kukri's I've bought and not any difference between wood and
horn.
If I were going to be in a jungle environment for any length of time, read years, I would consider roughed up horn as it wouldn't rot as easily. I can't see the Nepali horn kukris being finished to the degree that we get, and with that considered I might prefer horn.
But the Ghorkas & The Marauders that operated in the Burma,China, India(?) theatre didn't seem to have much problems with wood handles.;)
I've had less shrinkage with wood than I have with horn as well. I fix my user handles in such a way that after I deburr them once I don't have to worry about further shrinkage and sharp edges.
A simple triangular groove at the intersection of the buttcap and whatever material solves that problem once and for all!!!!:D
As to the possible problem with blood and gore on the wood handles see the above.
I imagine the Ghorkas and others who have used kukris in combat have had ample blood and gore on their wood handles.
And I imagine that there are more wood handles on all sorts of edged tools throughout history than any other up until say 1900 or thereabouts.
Even unfinished wood will soak up the oils from your skin and over time will somewhat waterproof the wood.
I'm in awe and always will be that Otzi's yew wood bow made it through the glacier with him and it being 5,000 years old!!!! Let alone the other accoutrements he had with him made of wood!!!! And there were different types of wood for different applications used!!!!!
The ancients and all of us after were very knowledgable about what wood to use for what purpose and what would last under adverse conditions.
I maybe should have used oak for the two kardas I'm making for my one Foxy Folly, but I used Sycamore instead.
I put a Johnson's Paste Wax finish (only) on one already and when the other is ready I will use the same on it.
I'm sure they will get gore and blood on them at some point. but IMO I think they will be just fine and last on down the line from the generations to come.:D

I guess I could've just said, "I prefer wood!!!!":rolleyes: :p ;) :D
 
Yvsa,
who is Otzi? A lot of things get preserved in ice. Hopefully, I won't be one of them:) Speaking of yew, have you ever seen any furniture made out of English yew? The stuff is fantastic. Too bad that it doesn't grow over here the same way.
 
It does grow over here if by "here" you mean Ohio. The common name this side of the pond is "Taxus." We have them up to fifty feet high. Taxus is often a foundation planting inolder neighborhoods that, after decades, gets out of hand and finds its way to the curb, ripped out. I have two salvaged to be shaped as bonsai. Search "Taxus" in Google etc. if you are interested.
 
Originally posted by truck
Yvsa,
who is Otzi?
Click to expand...

I'm sure you have heard of Otzi, it's just probably that you didn't know that someone had given him a name. He is also known as,
"The Iceman," You can learn more about Otzi here.:)
Check out his accoutrements, a copper axe head mounted but in pieces, a flint knife with an Ash handle, the Yew bow, as well as his clothing. Otzi's story is nothing short of amazing!!!!!!!:D
Scientists have pretty much determined that Otzi was murdered some 5,000 years ago and that he bled to death.
We not only had a lot of knowledge about what material to use for what use way back when, but we also had enmity for our neighbors, still do.:(
 
Originally posted by Thomas Linton
It does grow over here if by "here" you mean Ohio.
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Thomas I wasn't aware that Yew grows in Ohio, but I was aware it grows in the Pacific Northwest. The year before I was in the 6th or 7th grade woodshop in Orofino Idaho one of the students had harvested a nice Yew, seasoned it to perfection and made a longbow from it in the woodshop class.
The teacher said it shot way over the length of the football field on it's first draw.
It's been way too long ago for me to remember the poundage, but it was hefty the best I recall.:D
Orofino back then was one of the few places I didn't feel like a giant among the rest of the kids. When I was 13 I weighed 145 pounds and was 5'10" and strong as an ox and about as smart as a dumb one.:)
I got a 45 pound draw Lemonwood bow for Christmas when I was nine and never had a problem drawing it to a full 28 inches.
There was some big arsed kids in Orofino back then, might still be!!!!;)
 
Thanks to all:) I was wondering if Otzi was the iceman, guess I've lived a sheltered life. As for the yew tres, there is a big difference between what can grow in say England and much of this country. I was talking about something that will grow into a substantial tree, and can be harvested for lumber. Most of the yew/Taxus in this country will never get past the large shrub size. Still, if you get a chance, check out the color of the stuff. It can be very attractive.
 
Originally posted by truck
I was talking about something that will grow into a substantial tree, and can be harvested for lumber.

Most of the yew/Taxus in this country will never get past the large shrub size. Still, if you get a chance, check out the color of the stuff. It can be very attractive.
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Truck if you will read Thomas' post again you will see where he said, "The common name this side of the pond is "Taxus." We have them up to fifty feet high."
And the Yew that grows in the Pacific Northwest is native to that area and gets quite large when left to its own devices. It's considered a "junk tree" by the loggers. I don't know if it's even used for firewood, but I would think it being an excellent bow wood that it would burn hot.
I wonder what part of the tree is used for bow making, the heart or sapwood?
The heart wood of Bois D' Arc is used. The sap wood isn't as supple or as strong and any goodly amount of sap wood left on a Bois D' Arc bow will generate a terrible amount of string follow.:(
 
Yvsa,
I'm not trying to argue with anybody. Taxus is the Botanical Latin name everywhere in the world. Yew, is the common name. There are many different types. They share the same basic needle characteristics, but vary in size widely. IIRC, the old English longbows were made out of the stuff. I try to keep my eyes open for abandoned old shrubs that have attained some thickness. I wish that my plant books had not died an untimely death so that we might be able to figure out who has what, and where :)
 
I recall in some movie that only two things come out of taxus. :rolleyes:

I find that horn handles sort of stick to my hand which is a good thing. Dunno if it's the stuff oozing out of my hand but it may be all the paste I ate when I was a kid.
 
Yvsa,
The English long bow is made from both sap & heart wood, apparently the bowyers try not to cut into the bark side of the sap on the best bows, Eg. They use the outer shape of the trunk to make the perfect bow. The sap side faces the target.
Cutting into the sap destroys the best of the properties & incourages delamination.
The sap wood is very elastic the heart wood has great comprhesive strengh so the pair together operate in the perfect union.
Unfortuantly most makers today just make do & dont follow the old traditions.

spiral
 
Originally posted by BruiseLeee
I recall in some movie that only two things come out of taxus. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

That's funny, now we have to run and hide from the "Taxus" ------:)
 
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