Killa Zilla Handle choices.. your thoughts?

[LMT66]

Those who have either one or both and have used them ....... which handle texture do you like better, hand-shaped or machine cut?

 

[Skrapmetal]

I'm still waiting for mine, but I'm definitely in the camp of smooth. The smoother the better for large choppers. Better flow in the hand, and less hotspots.

 

[Last Visible Canary]

Personally I'd go with machined g10 having fallen in love with it on several of the newer models. you'll probably have to sand down the ridges if you intend on using it without gloves though, g10 gets pretty sharp (so does canvas but not quite as crisp).

The other benefit of g10, if you go with smooth you can hit it with 80 grit sand paper (or lower) and it takes on a bit of the sand papers grippyness. My boss jack is at 80 grit and it feels like I'm holding onto worn down grip tape.

 

[PeterPHWS]

I am another fan for smooth grips .... usually .... but the KZII grip is "unusual" in that it's length is the same to look at as the TTKZ but that grip has a frontal swell which extends quite far back and the rear swell is also long .... this means that "in the middle" your hand feels like it's not going anywhere when you apply power when chopping ....

The KZII has less lengthy front and rear swells and as such the middle position with the palm swell centred is a grip which still has a fair bit of room front and rear before your hand makes contact with the swell areas .... it almost seems designed like that .... to give two grips .... high for controlled work and low for chopping ... this has you gripping for my hands which are XL to XXL for gloves ... around the middle palm swell for security on the grip .... mainly using the middle and trigger fingers .... because of the ability to potentially slide forward when chopping hard wood on impact .... I think the KZLE II grips which have a smoothed down compromise on the chequering would be an advantage. Giving that bit more grip but reducing the liklihood of hot spots .... so if you had sanding skills and wanted the CG version .... smoothing the chequered version would be my way of going ahead if I had to choose again.

Here is a pic of what I mean on the grip ....

You can see how the frontal and rear swells in the grip are not very pronounced and how on the rear grip you mainly have to use your middle finger for control .... and why having to go back so far I decided to remove the vertical metal rear part of the original handle .... so with this type of grip you would likely benefit from a little extra texture to assist.

I personally think I will try and get some custom grips done for mine with similarities to the TTKZ so the front and rear swells are increased to give a central "one grip" does everything .... the two grip length is not my preference ....

I used the KZII to take down a tree a couple of days ago,

it was part of a comparison between it and the CS Khukri which another member asked for ... the tree as you can see was long dead and the wood very hard ... the grip used as shown above had me tear a muscle or a tendon in my middle finger which is where the "strain" is mainly taken when using the lower grip .... and the middle normal grip had me sliding back and forward ....
but the rear grip does give you a leverage advantage by making the weight forward momentum increased .... makes the knife feel like a longer blade than it is .... but the lack of control does make you back off a little after a lot of use as your fingers start to feel numb .... hence my thoughts that some form of smoothed chequering would be a better option than just smooth grips ....

The comparison has a lot of pic's done and is still on-going and I will do it when I get the chance .... they take a long time to write up etc .... so it might be a little while ....

 

[VoxHog]

Smooth canvas micarta for me.

 

[Bigfattyt]

I don't have both.

I have a hand shaped FBMLE.

I chose the quilted for a couple of reasons.

First off, I love the look of the old quilted handles.

Secondly, I own sand paper, and I am not afraid to use it. If Hot Spots become an issue with me, I will just knock them down.

 

[LMT66]

I don't have both.

I have a hand shaped FBMLE.

I chose the quilted for a couple of reasons.

First off, I love the look of the old quilted handles.

Secondly, I own sand paper, and I am not afraid to use it. If Hot Spots become an issue with me, I will just knock them down.

That was my initial thought but I can't discern how thick the machine runs are from the pictures on the website. There is a good spine shot of the hand shaped and they look nice and thin between the tubes but there is no spine shot of the quilted. If the quilted are as thin as the hand shaped, sanding will thin out the handle too much.

Anyone have a spine shot of the quilted?

 

[PeterPHWS]

LVC has a checkered grip model .... he did a post on it which may have a spine shot .... I will see if my search skills can find it ....

Here it is .... http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=756267&highlight=lvc

There is a cracking pic of the handles compared to the TTKZ on a spine shot .... you can see from that what I am saying above about the forward and rearward length of the palm swells ....