Rehandling Trailmaster?

J

JcyHunter

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Dec 26, 2016
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Hello all, hope everyone is enjoying the holidays. I recently acquired a sorta beat up Cold Steel Trailmaster in O1 steel. I’ve been working on cleaning up the blade, and I cut off the handle to clean up some rust on the tang. Was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction as to where to get a handle made for it, or any ideas on diy handle. Im kinda leaning towards stag but open to suggestions, the stacked leather handles also look nice, just not sure as to what it would cost to have one made. Thanks in advance for any advice.
 
Kraton is my favorite by far. But on a working knife, if I can't have kraton, I would make a set of scales from something like Bodark. (Osage Orange) With an oil finish and light checkering.

I wouldn't even consider stag or mother of pearl or anything like that on a working knife.

JUst MHO!:thumbsup:
 
Ben Dover said:
I wouldn't even consider stag or mother of pearl or anything like that on a working knife.
Click to expand...
I get why not the mother of pearl but why not the stag ?
I'm not a huge fan but it seams practical; knobs and natural jigging for grip and tough enough. Pretty much.
 
Good gripping, yes. But I've seen far too many of them break when dropped.

Kraton is my first choice, but it isn't available unless it came that way from the maker.:(
 
Stag is one of the most durable natural handle materials.
I have never seen it break from being dropped.
The Cold Steel knives have very short tangs, and they should be extended when possible.
 
I think leather would work great. I replaced the rubber handle on my Marine raider with leather washers, and am very pleased with it. You can buy the washers precut for the tang, so the only tricky part is attaching the pommel. Osage would also be a great choice,


ontario-sp10-marine-raider-mods.1609660


this Fallkniven looks similar to a leather handled Trailmaster
b773fd38f6495ba742b88f01fa84a673.jpg
 
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Brisa used to have a great leather handle how to tutorial on their website. It might still be there, haven't searched for it in ages...

It isn't all that hard to do and possible with hand tools.

Stag is excellent material but very pricey to experiment with nowadays.
A block of micarta isn't all that pricey and possible to work with hand tools as well. It will be slow going, but then again power tools allow me to make my mistakes quicker. :)

Hand drill, chainsaw file, double and single mill bastard files, some 80-220- 400-600 grit sandpaper and epoxy....
 
Many years ago, I made sets of scales for vtwo low end knives. A Gerber and a Buck.

Made them from Red Oak, checkered them 18 LPI with a stockmaker's checkering tool. Took the sharp "points" off of the checkering with wet/fry 2K grit paper, and finished them with gunstock oil appplied with a soft toothbrush.

Worked out quite well. (Too bad the blades didn't last as well as the scales.):(
 
For a working knife I would use rubber horse matting, preferably used matting. It would be more dense that way.
 
How would u attach horse stall mats to a hidden tang? Is it thick enough to bore a hole and slip onto the tang?
 
they could be attached with epoxy and a thong hole tube much the way the original handle is attached. I have an MTECH Trailmaster clone and am gonna get some of that horse stall material and try it on the MTech handle. can it be sanded down or carved to shape?
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Stag is one of the most durable natural handle materials.
I have never seen it break from being dropped.
The Cold Steel knives have very short tangs, and they should be extended when possible.
Click to expand...
The Trail Master series, the tang in the krayton handle is a near through tang. It is Held in place with a rivet that is fixed at nearly the end of the handle.

Very good candidate for rehandle. There are custom makers that do so.


If you wanted a through tang, you would have to modify the tang. Should be able to pin it to the tang.

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Now, the Nachez Bowies and the Laredo Bowies are a stub tang, welded to a cable (which is why I would not ever buy one).


Those are an example on sunrisecustomknives.com


Here is a stacked leather/wood/stag example from the same place. The thong hole is likely the original thong hole/attachment location on the original tang.

h7huLcY.png

He has quite a few pics of rehandles on Cold Steel knives.
 
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Bill DeShivs said:
I must have been thinking of the other bowies.
Click to expand...


The two bowies that they make that are good patterns for fighters, the Nachez and the Laredo bowies are both stub tangs with a welded rod or cable. I am baffled as to why they went this direction. But I won't buy one!! In a big knife subject to high torque and impact I'm baffled by the choice!!
 
Take Your time to find the most suitable materials for that long & beefy tang.
When You find the right pieces, be it wood, stag or stacked leather, a DIY project will be much closer.
Personally I favor Stag.

IMGP6561.jpg

Regards
Mikael
 
deltablade said:
they could be attached with epoxy and a thong hole tube much the way the original handle is attached. I have an MTECH Trailmaster clone and am gonna get some of that horse stall material and try it on the MTech handle. can it be sanded down or carved to shape?
Click to expand...
Yes it can, it was popular with the cutting championship contenders. Gives a good solid no slip grip.
 
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