Mojo Micarta Golok Handle

pict

pict

Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
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They say that you can believe anything these days as long as you don’t believe it’s the truth and that everyone will support your quest for the truth as long as you don’t claim to find it.

In my ongoing quest for the perfect bushcraft machete I think I’m getting there. I don’t want to say I have arrived at the perfect machete for fear of upsetting everyone. Let’s just say that I’m planning to camp here for a while.

Last week I took my modified Tramontina golok out for a test drive and it did really well. I had gone out there with a cord wrap in the inlet handle area that I knew wasn’t going to work well in the field. I ended up removing it mid day and covering up the sharp edges of the wood with duct tape to save my hand. The machete worked so well that I had to come up with a permanent solution for the handle.

I decided to go out on a limb and try an experimental technique (for me at least), micarta wrap. I used 24 hour epoxy resin and a pair of old rip-stop woodland BDU’s. These were a pair that I had used for years and wore out. I had used them on a 10 day canoe trip in Algonquin Park that I took with my wife and countless other trips. Once they got replaced they were used for a while by students on many trips here in Brazil. In short there was a lot of good mojo in those pants. Due to catastrophic crotch failure they finally got retired. I’ve been planning to make micarta out of them for a long time.

I covered the inlet portion of the wood with a thin coat of epoxy and then started to wind the cloth around it in @1/2 inch strips, covering it with a thin coat of epoxy as I went. Once the winding was higher than the wood all around I let it set for 48 hours. Yesterday I took a file to it to lower it flush with the wood and sanded it to 220 grit. A top coat of superglue and a 320 grit sanding was all it took to finish.

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So here it is, my mojo micarta wrap modified Tramontina Golok. Consider me officially “chuffed”.

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Close up detail. I like that you can see it was made from rip-stop.

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In the sheath. I’ll be doing this again.

Mac

Modified Tramontina Golok Field Test
 
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Wow!! That looks great!
Do you think that you could make a "bulletproof sheath cover using that same method or harden area's of a sheath such as the opening area or tip using that method?
 
WJC01 said:
Wow!! That looks great!
Do you think that you could make a "bulletproof sheath cover using that same method or harden area's of a sheath such as the opening area or tip using that method?
Click to expand...

This was the first time I have used the process so I don't really know. My dad was a pioneer in the field of Kevlar/Epoxy composite materials (Boeing). I got the idea from things he had talked about. They made composite materials in all kinds of shapes so I figured a continuous wrap of micarta would probably work. Due to the fact that the micarta is seamless it makes for a very strong handle.

Mac
 
That handle looks great Mac. I have little use for actual machetes up here but I love the shape of that handle, and having lived in South Florida for so long I can see how comfortable having one like that would have been.
 
pict said:
This was the first time I have used the process so I don't really know. My dad was a pioneer in the field of Kevlar/Epoxy composite materials (Boeing). I got the idea from things he had talked about. They made composite materials in all kinds of shapes so I figured a continuous wrap of micarta would probably work. Due to the fact that the micarta is seamless it makes for a very strong handle.

Mac
Click to expand...

(per the initial inquiry - ) yeah, you can make some great sheaths (similar to) that way.


do some tests on your materials though, before commiting to a project full-bore, is my unsolicited advice on the matter...;

100% cotton, NYCO (as found on quality BDUs), and poly/cotton mixes of various weaves all have their advantages and disadvantages, depending on how you construct the sheath, brethren.


here's some first ones, from last year...;

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2.JPG



some Spectra and Kevlar hybrids, joined with some other composite materials, might make a sheath pretty interesting - i am attempting one of those for a Busse Sword - wish me luck.

HTH.

vec
 
AWESOME!! Iwas thinking about just impregnating the chain on the handles with epoxy and using saran wrap to hold it flush, but I like the look of yours even better. I've got a similar wrapped handle from gavilan, but it does not look pretty at all!
 
Joe,

I saw somewhere that you were offering the same wire wrapped handle machete that I used for this project. I would say go for it. I love the handle on this thing. I was ready to re-do it several times until I got it right as it was a process I knew I could eventually make work. I nailed it on the first try which means it is so easy a caveman can do it.

Mac
 
I have a few more if anyone wants to try it! How many attempts did it take you?
 
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