Salyan Rehandling...from Hmong Imports

[JayGoliath]

This Salyan is my 1st ever H.I.

I have a rather big paw for an Asian and the handle dug into my palm during chopping so it got me to change a longer handle.
After the some searching i found a DIY shop in HCM City, Vietnam where a nice chap runs a shop, Hmong Imports and i asked for his help.
He was really helpful in helping me to select the wood to match with the fiery red scabbard and brass pommel and bolster.

Before so i have to send him the original handle; The blade was wrapped with surplus of duct-tape for the sake of all the 10 digits i have now. The pommel, pin ring were easily removed with a few knockings after a scalding hot bath inside the kettle.
The wood handle took a longer time (20 mins) to seperate the laha.

I broke the famous notion here that laha is not tough; It's CRAZY tough. It smelt different too.My terrier probably wants to take a bath? sorry mate i'm afraid you won't survive.

Since everything was removed the excessive laha was difficult to scrape off the tang.

Have the tang measured for Mr.Hmong to start working on the handle length.

The inner surface of the bolster needed some works.

Ready to be sent to Hmong Imports.

So off we go he got a very nicely done handle from Ironwood with the newly welded pommel time to get busy!

The new handle, welded pommel, ring pin and the bolster were sent back and it's mating time! Meanwhile the ironwood just came back from a week long bath of tung oil. The length of tang was welded with a longer piece of 5160 by a local smith.

I used Loctite Quickset with 3200 PSI and this thing is no joke. You want to make sure all your alignment is good and it hardens after 5 mins.

The exposed tang was then removed with a little head protruding.Another trip to the table clamp and i hammered the pin so it blocks the pommel from play during high impact (chopping).

So here's the final product, 13.5" Salyan with longer and more ergo handle.
Mr. Hmong made the upper part of the handle slight longer to accommodate the space in between palm and wrist.

A comparison between a male and a female grip:

Once again i would like to express my utmost respect and appreciation for Hung , the man behind Hmong Imports for helping me to source and make a handle so perfect it's rare
and H.I for making such a tough khuk!

UB#1.

 

[Howard Wallace]

Great looking work. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Karda]

Those scrolled and skirted buttcaps can be a real bugger to realign
Nice job, Jay!.... and hung!

 

[Jaymo]

I hope the smell of the laha didn't ruin your tea pot. That's a cool looking tea pot. Nice job on the new grip. I'm quite the fan of tung oil. Sure wish good iron wood was easier to get, here in the USA, without getting raped on the price.
Kind of cool, that your Himalayan Imports knife has a handle from Hmong Imports.

 

[JayGoliath]

Thanks for the feedback. Hung's really good with his skills.
Initially he opted for redwood as it will match the scabbard but i dig the dark brown and red combo.
This rehandling certainly strengthen my faith on stick tang as i re-handled with Hung. It was even taken for a chopping session and no play was found.

The tea pot was the only thing deep enough to immerse the handle into boiling water. I don't drink that much of tea but it's certainly a culture here.
The tea used here for casual outing are Ceylonese (modern day Sri Lanka) tea leaves which, if excessive can cause aching in joints.

Ironwood is found throughout South East Asia for its durability and toughness. I don't know if there's a version of LV here but Ironwood does the job. I'm looking out for its root to make a Indian-inspired tree club.

Last i heard from Hmong Imports is that he's making another version of slim sharpie. Got the drawing on board Hung?

Khukuri is a large field to study in fact it shouldn't even be consider as a knife. It's unique on its own.
How many kinds of it out there?
Like what Uncle Bill said: As much as the type of leaves on the tree.

 

[hunglvq]

That's cool Jay. Glad to know that the butt fits Mr Salyan well. He's now handsome again.

This fun project requires lots of imagination, as sending the blade here is not allowed, only the handle can be sent. When I made the handle, I have to imagine about the blade.

The "iron wood" is called after a Chinese word naming a hard wood that is used to make big columns in the old citadel. Botanically, it is related to Rosewood but the texture is more dense with less stripes, much much heavier.

It's my pleasure being able to touch my hands on an HI product as well. The feeling is always very special.

You made me laugh with the H'mong Imports shop.

I'm quite busy for the time being, then don't show up often in the HI forum.

Sending here my best wishes to HI, Auntie and all the mates around.

Hung

 

[Yangdu]

Nice work, thank you for sharing

 

[Jaymo]

Holy cow, Jay! Ironwood club. That would be a brain basher, for sure. I'd love to have an American Indian war club made from Ironwood, specifically the ball head club.
I really like the way you rehandled your HI. I'm not interested in all the newest NinjaNaziTacticalRambo knives. I like the tried and true knife designs from the early 20th century and prior. Barlow and stockman are my favorite pocketknives, along with whittlers and scout/swiss army(basic 4 blade) knives.
Khukuri is one of my favorite fixed blade knives. I'm 41 and have owned one since I was 14. Can't see myself ever not owning one. In the 1980s, Atlanta Cutlery touted them as being the best/most useful survival knives made. I agree, especially when it comes to HI Khuks. Sharp enough to dress game, tough enough to chop wood.
Anyway, I really like what Hung made for you. I bet you never split that handle.

 

[JayGoliath]

Thanks for the props Jaymo.
The credit has to go both Imports company as they lay the path for us to stride with pride and confidence.

I don't think i could break this handle. Experienced that when i worked on it. Bloody tough.

 

[jdk1]

Nice work Jay. I know that Salyan is a favorite of yours. I love the blade shape. I'm also glad to see Hung back. I thought he had disappeared! Take care.

 

[shortwinger]

Great job Hung! Looks like you have the perfect custom Jay. Good luck with it.

 

[mohd]

Last Saturday I went to see Jay in Penang Island to collect my Phillip Patton's cutter which was sent to Jay by Aunt Yangdu together with Jay's khuks. We had Hainan Cha (i.e. IIANM it's a Hainan coffee) and we had a nice talk about knives and khukuris for about a couple of hours

Before departed back to Kuala Lumpur I showed my Shop 1 18th Century Model to Jay and Jay showed couples of his khuks including this rehandled UBMS (i.e. Uncle Bill Memorial Salyan). I found out that the rehandling was done great. And it felt very nice in my hand. The 1.25" additional handle length really improved the hand grips and it matches nicely with the OAL of the UBMS. Surely this 13.5" UBMS is just the right khuk for backpack and camping activity. Hung and Jay's collaboration effort in rehandling UBMS was a success. Congrats to Hung and Jay :thumbup:

Wish I could get the 12.25" UBMS as the next in my khuks collections

mohd

N.B. Lots of lots of thanks to Aunt Yangdu and Nephew Jay for all the helps in the shipment and delivering of my Phillip Patton's cutter

 

[Cotherion]

Yo Jay, I gotta fondle the new handle, since I have tried holding the old one before it'll be interesting to tryout the new one.

 

[stickfred]

Thanks for sharing this with us Jay. It looks like some fine work was done and the result was what you were looking for. Good on you for your efforts. And thanks to you mohd for your additional commentary. It can't hurt to make a khukuri more useful.