New handle

LongRifle

LongRifle

Joined
Apr 5, 2000
Messages
2,018
I would like to try my hand at replacing a handle on an old BAS blem. I've looked at Montana Knife supply and they have some very nice looking wood-it's a bit expensive though. How should I go about taking off the original handle? Should I just find a pretty block of wood and sand/file it down until I get the handle to what I want? Any ideas how to take the buttcap off and put it back on? Thanks for all your help. I am going to give it a shot in pine before I order some maple burl or iron wood.
Matthew-Look at him staring at me, smug in his madness. He's thinking of killing me and riding my carcass down the mountain to safety. If he's thinking that he's truely gone mad.
 
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Matt you can either file around the keeper to remove the peened area of the tang or just file the tang flat with the keeper, although I have found it takes just a bit more than flat. Then you can take a thin blade and gently pry of the keeper and "Sometimes" you can do the same with the butt cap. Then take an old pan that's deep enough to at least cover half of the handle with water and put it on the stove to boil.
Prop up the blade of the khukuri to keep the handle covered as much as possible. Be-Sure-To-Have-Heavy-Pot-Holders-
Handy!!!! After a bit you will see the laha start too melt, and when it does take the Pot Holders and grip the blade and handle and pull Hard.
If the handle doesn't come off easily just boil it some more. The handles are very easy to remove this way. Just to be on the safe side you may want to use old rags instead of your wife's/girlfriends good pot holders because if you get the laha on them it is almost impossible to get it off. Putting them into the freezer and freezing the laha very hard helps.
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NOT That I have Ever done anything like that though.
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And What Ever You do DO NOT let any hot laha hit your skin. It is very similar to hot roofing tar and will burn the crap out of you and inevitabley it is one's 1st instinct to take the other hand to wipe the HOT stuff OFF, Then you have two burned hands or fingers!!!

It is a good idea to make a prototype handle out of cheap wood first. It is very easy to make the 1st attempt too small. The 1st one I done I wound up making 3 handles before I got it right.

A Desert Ironwood handle would be very beautiful!!!
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>>>>---¥vsa---->®

"I would rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy."

........unknown, to me anyway........

Khukuri FAQ
Himalayan Imports Website
 
Yvsa,
You covered just about everything. I second the burn the crap out of you statement!
Terry
 
Just one more thing -- the dust of desert ironwood is toxic! Wear respiratory protection while sanding.

The wood is also very hard and prone to cracking. If you read around the Shoptalk forum a little you'll soon find everybody hates working desert ironwood ... it does look great when it's finished, though.

-Cougar :{)
 
One more thing....... You might be better off doing the boiling of the handle outside!!! That is unless you like the smell of a roadkill skunk on a hot July afternoon
smile.gif

Dan
 
Thanks for all your help everyone! Yvsa, I worked for the street department over the summer. I did just about everything from paving to sitting in a truck all day I got stuck with sealing the roads and ended up with 400 degree tar on my arm a few times-that *really* burns. Thanks again.
Matthew
 
Come to think of it, the phrase " That really burns my ( synonym for posterior )" reminds me of re-roofing the garage during the summer heat. Stripped to clean up that evening and there were two saucer sized pink spots where I'd been sitting on the hot roof all day.

[This message has been edited by Rusty (edited 10-26-2000).]
 
Any idea how a handle molded with epoxy (steel reenforced) might work? The stuff may be too dense to be practical.

Will
 
Hey, Will might really be onto something here.

I like the idea of a molded handle! Here's what I have in mind (it may not work): That stuff they pour into Bigfoot's footprints with--Plaster of Paris? Anyway, take some of that and pour it into a pan. Lay the old handle half-way into the plaster (length-wise) and suspend it somehow until the plaster hardens. Repeat the process with another pan of plaster and the other half of the khuk handle. Once the plaster molds have cured, clamp them together and pour in the epoxy. Then stick the tang into the epoxy and try to center it. Keep the blade and tang suspended in that position until the epoxy dries. Then break off the mold and cut or sand away the mold lines. You could even grind away some of the butt until the end of the tang is exposed and peen it over a keeper or washer. If the cured epoxy wants to stick to the plaster mold, you may have to first coat the inside of the mold with oil, teflon, etc.

Anybody have experience in this area who could critique or improve this idea, or comment on its feasability?

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I DO NOT CHOOSE TO BE A COMMON MAN

"It is my right to be uncommon...if I can; I seek opportunity...not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stole calm of utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud, and unafraid; to think and act for myself; enjoy the benefits of my creations and to face the world boldly and say,
This I have done, and this is what it means to be an American."

--Dean Alfrange
 
Interesting comments here. I like the idea of using plaster-of-paris to creat a mould. Another method would to create your handle in wax, the embed it in plaster, leave a pour hole on top and an air hole. Using aluminium to cast the new handle, the wax will disperse into the plaster, and bingo! Custom handle!
Well, I guess I should also warn you not to get molten aluminium on your skin, because that could smart a bit.
David

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"Kaphar Hunno Bhanda Marnu Ramro"
 
There's an kevlar-filled epoxy putty called Miracle Weld that can be formed like clay, and then after it hardens you can carve and file and grind and sand it to final shape. It's very tough stuff -- I made a rear sight for a NAA mini-revolver out of it. Before I made the sight I tested the stuff by sticking a lump of it to a piece of galvanized steel I had around. After hardening overnight I tried to knock it off the steel with a carpenter's hammer and couldn't do it -- I worked up to full power hammer blows and I marred the surface a little but I couldn't break it.

You can stain the stuff black with magic marker and it doesn't rub off. It's porous enough to absorb it. It doesn't look or feel like plastic at all; it looks and feels like ebony wood.

You can get it at auto body shops and farm supply places. I guess it would take three tubes at about $5 each to make a handle, maybe four, so wood would probably cost you less, but this stuff is tougher than any wood except maybe lignum vitae, and it would easy to make a handle with especially if you don't have much for woodworking tools.

It would be a good way to replace your pommel if it ever falls off and gets lost, too. I think I suggested that on this forum already in another thread a long time ago....

-Cougar :{)

P.S. If you like finger grooves you could mold them to fit your hand. (I ranted about the finger grooves on the first HI katana, but khukuris are not the same as swords ... if you want to put finger grooves on a sword you'd probably better not tell me about it....)

:{)

P.P.S. Yes, that mini-revolver does look a little strange with what appears to be an ebony rear sight on it ... but it works.
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:{)
 
I had never though of building a mold for the epoxy handle. I had what Cougar described in mind. The epoxy I had in mind, steely, is more of a puddy than a liquid. I built a bolster with the stuff and it has stood up. I'll have to try the kevlar re-enforced epoxy out, it sounds to be quite shock resistant.

Regular accuglass and "Home Hardware" brand 1 hour epoxy are very running and will flow into the mold nicely. Unfortunately, accuglass does not stand up to use on a khukuri and I am not sure about the "Home Hardware" epoxy. Does anyone know if the accuglass with steel in the matrix run as well as the regular stuff or have suggestions for anther epoxy.

Will

 
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