They've Arrived!

J

Jackal_89

Joined
Nov 13, 2015
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122
It's been an emotional roller coaster this whole time, but my first blades finally arrived! Through all the troubles, Yangdu really took care of me, above and beyond my expectations. At some point, I'll try to do a product review to help the spread of HIKV. :D The first order never arrived (lost in the mail as far as I know). Yangdu sent me a set of replacement blades that arrived and I could not be happier!

The replacement CAK has a horn handle instead of wood, but I don't even care. As soon as I opened the package, I fell in love with it. I'll just have to learn how to care for horn properly. Now for some first impressions:

1. This thing is A BEAST! It's thick, and has a nice fat handle that fits my long fingers very nicely.
2. The craft on it is beautiful and for one of the marks, it sports a bull's head. There are a few small blemishes on the handle with some red coloration on them. It doesn't bother me, but does anyone know what that might be?
3. It fits pretty loose in the sheath and comes out with absolutely no resistance, but I plan to buy or make a separate sheath to keep the original nice.
4. Chakmak and Karda are much smaller than they appeared in photos, but it's not a big deal. The only thing that merits mentioning is some minor damage on the Karda which appears bent halfway up, and the very tip is rolled over. Nothing I can't fix. Again, I can't really see myself using them that much or at all anyway (so I say, now).

I also ordered a KLVUK as well. This one will probably be my primary user.

1. This thing is a lot lighter than it looks!
2. The wood is definitely more grippy than horn.
3. It has a rough character to it that isn't near as refined (aesthetically) than the CAK, but I love it for exactly that reason. I tend to baby pretty things, which is why I never buy a "pretty" gun to hunt with.

I haven't had a chance to really use them yet, but I'm itching to put them to the test!
 
The bull's head is Purna Kami. There are some threads showing how to tighten up a sheath, step by step. I believe Ndog did one.

You can always contact auntie concerning the Karda and Chakma, she probably has a spare set sitting around somewhere.
 
cul4u01 said:
The bull's head is Purna Kami. There are some threads showing how to tighten up a sheath, step by step. I believe Ndog did one.

You can always contact auntie concerning the Karda and Chakma, she probably has a spare set sitting around somewhere.
Click to expand...

I've seen the post and will try it at some point.

Some light work with a file took care of the edge already. It's really no big deal. In the time between these two posts of mine, I've already fixed it. All I need is some fine grit sandpaper to sharpen it up.
 
CAK was also my first khuk. Don't you just love how powerful it feels? You will be surprised how many things there are to do around the house that you needed a huge khukuri for, that you didn't even realize. I'm still finding stuff...
 
LoL Khukoo, I find that before I had a huge khuk I just made do with other stuff. But fortunately now I am always seeing things that a CAK is perfect for, though trimming finger nails I did decide the smaller blade I had used before WAS the better choice there.
 
The red coloration on the handle might be natural to the horn but I suspect it is from the polishing rouge used to finish the knife.

Here are a couple pics of a special Kumar Karda (by Sher Kami) where the handle crosshatching shows the red polishing rouge:

View attachment 600452 View attachment 600453
 
As I've been fondling the CAK, I notice that the tang is ever so slightly wider than the handle. If I apply Hooflex to the horn, will it possibly expand back out like wood with oil? Or do I just break out the sandpaper?

I'll also need to get over my distrust (for lack of a better term) of horn in extended use, but mostly the large temperature fluctuations.
 
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It should expand a bit. If not, a metal file is usually quicker if it's bothersome.
 
Congrats Jackal! I still don't have an AK/CAK but it's on the list. I do have 2 KLVUKs though, one I ground and polished the forge scale off of and made a kydex sheath for, and the other I just apple cider vinegared the forge scale off. I just like to work on things though :)

I'm personally partial to wood handles, because of the grip and also because a wood handle feels almost warm to the touch, while horn is cold. The grip isn't an issue on khukuris, where that slick horn helps prevent blisters, but I do find my hand trying to slide off the back of my AK Bowie. You can always rough up the horn with steel wool or even fine sandpaper, but in my case it's just too pretty.

About the red "blemishes," doesn't quite sound like polishing rouge to me, but it did catch my attention. There was an AK Bowie posted with a horn handle that had some beautiful red grain marks, believe it lives with pyro008. It was in my top 3 Missed AKBs, along with a Walnut one, and one with Sadan wood handles, one of Bigbore577's scores. Here's the thread http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1311365-Seven-blems-and-rare-one-for-7-29

I could be wrong though, it could be rouge. But I'm just an optimist, and hope that you have yourself a blade that is even cooler than you thought. Remember, if a blemish doesn't effect performance, it's just character :)
 
Jackal_89 said:
As I've been fondling the CAK, I notice that the tang is ever so slightly wider than the handle. If I apply Hooflex to the horn, will it possibly expand back out like wood with oil? Or do I just break out the sandpaper? ....
Click to expand...

I got a very nice knife recently -- a Manakamana Special with horn handle. It had the same issue: The edges of the full tang were slightly wider than the handle, enough that if this were a user I would have to do something about it.

Out of curiosity, I decided to soak the handle in mineral oil to see if the slabs expanded enough so I couldn't feel the edges of the tang. I put the whole handle in a jar of mineral oil and left it for about three weeks. I didn't exactly forget about it, but every time I thought of removing it from the mineral oil I decided to wait.

After reading your post today I finally pulled out the knife and wiped off the mineral oil. Rather, I tried to wipe it off. It seems that the horn is just porous enough that it soaked up some of the oil and it might be a while before it stops sweating oil. Unfortunately the oil seems not to have made the handle slabs swell at all. I can still feel the exposed edges, pretty much the same as before.

That leaves me with these options:

1. Do nothing. The horn looks great. It is very shiny and very slippery, but this is not a user so that doesn't matter.
2. Tape off the horn and carefully file the exposed edges of the tang.
3. Tape off the horn and apply a thin layer of epoxy along the edge of the tang where it meets the slabs.

I will probably take option 1. I certainly can't do anything else until the handle stops sweating mineral oil.

I could have tried Hooflex instead of mineral oil, but I wanted to try this experiment. In my previous experience Hooflex protects the horn but does not necessarily make it swell.

Some people have had success closing hairline cracks with a mineral oil soak, but I usually use superglue for that.

This is the blade before the mineral oil bath:

View attachment 600479
 
David99: I didn't think oil would work on horn. Then again, I've never had a horn handled anything before. For mine, The difference is so small that sandpaper or a fine needle file would take care of it. I can just feel it roughing up my hand when swinging the blade.

Can anyone tell me how horn handles frigid cold?
 
100% pure neatsfoot oil works extremely well on horn, bone and even for wood. You can Google it, I will spare everyone the details why it's a good choice. As for horn's durability in extreme cold, I can't directly say. However, I had two Freedom Arms in 454 Casull re-gripped with Buffalo horn about 25 years ago. They still appear like new with only neatsfoot oil being applied occasionally. They've been exposed to temperature extremes from one end of the spectrum to the other, all the while taking the carrying and fairly savage recoil of the 454. It's some pretty tough stuff. Slippery is great in this case as the 454 rolls through your grip, thus not punishing your wrist as much.
 
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