Horn, wood and bone -- anything else?

Bill Martino

Bill Martino

Joined
Mar 5, 1999
Messages
34,096
One thing that will get priority while I'm in Nepal is finding a good supplier of AGED horn for handles. We will probably have to find a supplier in India but I believe it can be done and I'll do my best to solve this problem of cracking handles. If we can't find what we want we will buy a good quantity and start aging it ourselves, rotating stock.

I'll also be looking for exotic woods that might be available and additionally will be looking for a place where we can buy AGED bone for handles.

Years ago when we were not selling a lot of knives handle material was much easier. This is not the case today. People try to sell us green horn, wood, and bone that was on the hoof just yesterday and it doesn't work.

If you have any suggestions or comments there is one more day to post them up.

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Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
Khukuri FAQ

 
(scratches head)

Bamboo?

Errr...no. And we don't want to even think about fiberglas, micarta or anything else super-toxic...NO way.

Of all the synthetics, Delrin has the least toxic properties. It's a sort of "very hard rubber" that is extremely easy to carve or cut even with hand-tools. If using machine tools, you want to use very slow speeds so that you cut rather than burn (which would be toxic). But avoiding burning isn't hard. It's almost always white, it's similar to what most plastic cutting boards are made of. I found some at a local plastic supply house in 1.5" wide solid cylinders fairly cheap...Bill, you should be able to score a sample in Reno.

Non-traditional, but it would fit their methods well, it'd be almost indestructable, and you might find an Indian source? Cosmetically what you get is a "ghostly semi-translucent white".

Just a thought. I've got a foot-long cylinder I'd planned on using as a sword handle on a project, I just thought of it. Certainly not for all tastes, but...

On traditional materials:

Bill, as I recall the horn cracks are towards the ends, right? Could they be reinforced with bands of brass "inlaid" into the horn at each end, recessed so that the feel is smooth between horn and maybe 1/4" of brass either end?

Maybe a grip with wood at each end, and a section of horn about 3" to 4" long in the middle? Use a brass tube down the center and anchor the three sections to it with epoxy? What I'm thinking is, maybe no single traditional material is "the answer", maybe laminates are the way to go. The Mongols used to do bows in laminated wood and horn...?

Points to ponder.

Jim
 
Can you try and put hoof lubricant into the horn before the handle is glued onto the tang?

Or would that even help to avoid future splitting at all?

-Dave

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I saw an add in a magazine saying MASTODAN IVORY tusks and pieces.------ 30 lbs. min. order. I have the phone # and address also.

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Supplier has to be in India or Nepal. Shipping costs from here to Nepal plus the problems with Nepali customs is too much to deal with.

I don't think any synthetic is going to work -- most customers won't tolerate it and I don't think I'd like it either. Destroys some of the spirit of the knife. But thanks for good ideas anyway, Jim.

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Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
Khukuri FAQ

 
A ring of JB weld Quick is applied around the bolster and horn interface on my khukuri's. Also, JB weld is applied around the butt cap. The dark grey color blends in well with horn handles.

I don't know if this helps or not as most of the khukuri handles have small hairline cracks in them before applying JB Weld. I have not seen further cracks after JB Weld has been applied.

Will
 

What about ebony? A guy I know has had an ebony staff for about 10 years that has been put through hell. It's still in good condition. I have no idea how it would work for handles, but it has the colour of horn(kind of) and the strength of wood.

- D
 
I work with proteins everyday as a biochemistry scientist for the state of Kansas, not that this makes me a tremendous expert, but most proteins are matrices that are often arrayed into fibers. The only way I can see to get horn from unraveling is to treat it like nylon rope and heat the edges of the scales where they abut bolster and buttcap to fuse the ends of the fibers together. Will smell terrible and risk the appearance of the horn, though. Chemical means would also risk appearance and not be localized.
 
Bill,

Anyway to get in some horn handle blanks for repairs?

sing

AKTI #A000356
 
I think horn handle blanks might be available in the US. Where's Rusty? He had found some outfit that even offered red horn. If they've got red they gotta have black.

And Brian, you're right. Burning horn does smell terrible.

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Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
Khukuri FAQ

 
All the best to you folks on a good & safe trip, I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself.

Good luck with acquiring some seasoned horn for khukuri handles. I agree that the horn helps give the khukuris "character", for want of a better word, and repairing my "users" doesn't bother me. This is speaking only for myself, but if seasoned horn is not readily obtainable I'd say use what you can acquire on the "collector's" khukuris.

If in response to the "repair threads" someone comes up with an epoxy that very closely matches the horn coloring, along with a companion "buffing" technique, the information might be included in the FAQ for future reference in handle repair.

Just an idea - have a good trip.
 
:
Uncle Bill there is an old Indin trick of making bows with unseasoned wood. I have used the technique myself the best I could with a substitute for bear grease.

You can cut green wood, take the bark off and rub it well with oil. Any kind will work. The trick is to get enough oil into the wood to replace the sap/water coming out. When there's enough oil soaked up by the wood then the bow can be finished and held over a fire to drive more of the water out while still keeping the wood well oiled. I used to make a bow in about 3 weeks on weekends and after school and the like.

That's why a lot of woodcarvers that harvest thier own debarks the wood and paints the ends. That keeps them from cracking as the water then dries slowly from the outside in preventing it from checking or cracking up the ends.
Probably not an option for the kamis though.

The handle that cracked on me was on the Salyan and that wood was well seasoned. When I was working it cut real similar to a mahogany, sycamore, myrtle wood and the like. In my experience these woods don't split thier grain like some of the other hard woods.

If there is something similar to Ash or Hickory in Nepal that would go a long ways in improving any cracking.
Those woods are not just hard, but also springy which is the reason so many tool handles are made from them.

What kind of woods are used for axe,hammer,pick,shovel and like tools made from there?

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>>>>---¥vsa---->®

If you mix milk of magnesia with vodka and orange juice do you get a phillips screwdriver?

Khukuri FAQ




[This message has been edited by Yvsa (edited 01-31-2000).]
 
Source for horn is one of Bladeforum sponsors running the ad at top of the pages.

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Harrassment in this forum will not be reported. It will, however, be graded.
 
I just had an idea. How hard would it to get a piece of the rawe horn that has been such a problem.Yvsa mentioned green woodworking. How hard would it be to stabilize horn with Poly Etlyene Glycol... or PEG for short. This is something that wood turners use when they what to turn green wood. It helps to stabilize it. It would be worth a try.

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Nothing says love quite like a sharp knife... Now if my wife only believed that.
 
Uncle Bill, my only thought about handle material and its application is that it be traditional. For me, at least, most of the appeal of the khukuri is knowing that it represents an unbroken historical thread -- that the kamis of today are using the same techniques and the same materials as did their forefathers. I would much prefer a cracked handle made of horn that a kami obtained locally over a "perfect" handle made of a material (synthetic or otherwise) not traditionally used by Nepal's kamis.
 
Many thanks for input. After much harrassing by me the kamis made their own kiln and are curing all wood for handles themselves -- whether it needs it or not! We are going to find a way to cure both horn and bone while I'm there. It's a must do situation.

Worst case is buy 500 or 1000 pieces of horn and make a sort of horn kiln to cure it. Rotate the stock.

Bone needs to be boiled to death and then dried. We have the forges going all the time so why not a few pots of soup going, too. Then toss the bone into the horn kiln and wait until it's ready.

There's a way.

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Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
Khukuri FAQ

 
What kind of bone are you using? Or is that a question better left unasked?

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"Clear a path for the Kukhri or it will clear one for itself"
 
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