Second impressions on my HI Khuk - Horn woes

S

SilverLighT

Joined
Jan 21, 2002
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526
Here are my second impressions (the first being when I received the Khukuri and simply looked at it). I never posted the first impressions, I don't think.

I finally got the chance to give my 18" AK Khuk a good swinging the other day, when I was out at my friend's home-in-the-middle-of-nowhere... And so did he. I was wearing gloves, since we do live in Canada, and it was a bit chilly, 'round -5 at the time I believe...

He sliced open his palm, and I did not...
This was definately due to the horn shrinking, I suspect from the time I got it (a month or two ago), and up to the time I used it first. I guess large horn handles aren't the perfect handle material up here.

Anyway, the horn has shrunk, leaving a gap between the brass endcap and the horn... and this now exposed bit of brass is very sharp.

I filed down the sharp brass, sanded the horn a bit, and put on some epoxy to fill the gap, and am going to sand it again, and will probably leave it a bit rough for improved grip. This should fix it up quite nice, I think. Would any of you have done any different?

If I had to do things differently, I think I would have gone with a wood handle. I think it would hold up better in our harsh temperate climate, unlike the horn that has shrunk and cracked (even with my lanolin treatments). I have no problems on smaller peices of horn. (like the knife+steel that came with it), or on my other knives.

The few cuts that we did get in.. boy, did it ever chop and slice quite nice! went through 2, 3", even 4" birch like nothing else.
I'm sure it can do more once I get more experienced., I was too worried about de-limbing myself for now.

There is also some ironwood around my friend's place, I think... I wonder how it will fare against that.... heh. ;)

I haven't gotten a chance to wear the sheath yet either.. maybe next weekend.

I thought I might keep this one (my first) as a nice mostly-display piece... but the horn isn't keeping as nicely as i'd hoped...( so all bets are off, and this one will likely become a great beat-up user with time... I have trouble keeping the queens safe anyhow, if you get my meaning!
 
Ironwood would be tough and beautiful. The horn does shrink in the cold, unfortunately- the sanding and filing you did is the right solution. When not in use, you can coat it in lanolin or hooflex and put a plastic bag over the handle, so it soaks it up.
 
On smaller khuks like the BAS and 15 AK I sometimes grind the ends off the butcap and handle. On all khuks if the brass developes or exposes a sharp edge I sand it.



munk
 
Use the search feature ("sharp AND buttcap") to find the thread devoted to just this subject. Its the dryness of our winters.
 
Originally posted by Thomas Linton
Use the search feature ("sharp AND buttcap") to find the thread devoted to just this subject. Its the dryness of our winters.
Click to expand...

Yes, up here we tend to get very humid summers and dry winters.. I imagine the fluctuation does the horn no good =(

Thanks guys.

Mr.BadExample : perhaps that was part of my problem, when I drenched it in lanolin, I let it sit for a couple days.. but hadn't covered it during this time... had it covered after that though... and before... but not airtight.
 
SilverLighT-- I wouldn't have done anything differently. Your fix should take care of things. One thing you might want to check in the future is whether or not the buttcap is loose. Sometimes it will loosen up during hard use. You can peen over the end of the tang a bit to tighten things back up. This can also cause a gap between the buttcap and the handle material.
--Josh
 
and if ya replace the handle material , consider stacked leather washers like on the KaBar USMC knife. Impervious to shrinking or swelling, very forgiving.

The cold and dry seems to be the worst on khuks, and why I don't leave one in my car to constantly heat and cool.
 
Ferrous, the leather washers seem a good idea to me. Do you cut your own washers? Are they treated with anything other than a good waterproofer/leather care product?



munk
 
Now that we live in the Age of Silicon, I suppose that leather can be rendered pretty durable. Wish some of my old WWII pieces had that available -- some show considerable shrinkage.
 
Originally posted by munk
Ferrous, the leather washers seem a good idea to me. Do you cut your own washers? Are they treated with anything other than a good waterproofer/leather care product?
munk
Click to expand...

Yes, very interesting comment Ferrous. I just saw an example of this the other day - for the first time. I can't say as i'm very fond of it... especially for a large handle... but I aggree it would be very practical. Easy to do, too. I might do this for another knife with no handle.

As for being treated... yeah, it would have to be I think. Perhaps like the olden days, with beeswax or boiled. I'm not sure on the excact procedure., but I did experiment with this a while back.
If I were to guess, i'd just cut the peices, heat up some wax, and dip 'em in, let 'em soak a bit.. and then dry em off. Maybe repeat a few times until it's absorbed all the wax it can.
 
Dipping leather handles into liquified paraffin wax is an old trick for Kabar's from the Vietnam war era, to seal out fungus and mold per writer Leroy Thompson, IIRC.
 
Originally posted by Bill Martino
Using animal parts always seems to present some kind of problems. Karma?
Click to expand...

Do you think it's possible that karma is what causes the horn and bone or both on the khuk handles to be more trouble than the wood?:confused:
 
Yvsa,
Could be, could be.

I know that my next khuk will have wood handles.

Rusty,
I made a leather bracelet using that technique.. dipped it a few times into the wax... I've been wearing it most every day for the past 4 or 5 years now I think. It's still hard, and protected by the parrafin. It was also brown leather before dipping; ever since I dipped it, it's been black.
 
Almost all of my horn handles have cracks. Not big ones though. I have got a few that had perfect horn handles, not a crack to be seen and in a few months a few cracks. Where I live is neither a very hot or humid area. None have ever busted off though. The wood handled ones I have are fine, but one kind of shrunk a little.

I think the ones that you really chop thick stuff with get more cracks in them than the ones that just set around.
 
That's an interesting idea- Karma about bone and horn.

Are the Water Bufaloes eaten? Are they wasted? If you had an Oak table from the Brazilian rain forest- Karma there? Should the table crack?

For the non statistical record, the only handle I've had with a semi major crack has been wood. My folks have a wood table in Tucson, 2" thick Teak, and it keeps cracking.

As long as I've been reading posts in HI, there has always been some concern over a percieved weakness of horn handles. I wonder what the reality is.

I still like horn a little better than wood, and I've always been crazy about wood.



munk
 
Karma is a mystery to me. Maybe the horn just reacts to sunspots in different geographical locations more than wood.
I like the looks of the horn handle on my khukri, but since the first crack doubled in length just sitting for a few years, and there's a new one almost half as long, I'm considering it to not be a practical material for my Utah climate. The handle is still very solid, but, after several years of forgetting I even had it, I'm looking at getting a practical sheath for it and actually carrying it a bit in the back country. My concern is that it may be solid now, but it may give out under use in the far distance somewhere when I need it. A wood handle and real carrying sheath are on the near horizon from Terry Sisco as soon as I recover from Christmas, and I'm thinking about getting one more khukri from HI in the future, but it will definitely have a wood handle.
DPris
 
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