Hi all,
It's been long time now since my last sharking
or visit to the forum for that matter.
Lots of new guys here...lots of new exiting stuff.
Reason for post: Awhile ago I've ordered a custom Vojpuri Bowie from auntie, and
as you would imagine with custom stuff it took a good month to arrive. Shop floods, misfortune, me living at world's end, customs, you name it, it happened.
Finally I got the khuk together with some others I've been holding on stand by.
Box opened in a hurry, brief decision time as to which one to slide of the scabbard first...of-coarse...the Bowie.
I should say upfront that, when I've ordered the Bowie, I did not specify anything but for the blade not to have a Cho. So HI or auntie is not to blame for my "dislikes" below.
First impressions... something is wrong.
Perhaps I've been imagining it for so long, I forgot what it should look like.
Slightly rusted blade, nothing a good rub won't fix. Not a problem, we know there was a flood in the shop.
Handling / balance - not good...tipping heavily to the front for such a small blade.
Sharpness - scary.
Weight - scary too. 505 gram without the scabbard.
Handle - almost squire, beaffy and longer than required/needed. Very slippery too.
Cho - missing, as per the order. no surprises there.
Here's a pic:
This was to be a everyday carry in the bush knife.
Slightly disappointed, I've put it away in the hope I'll like it the next day.
Not so...same feeling. Put it away again and started collecting courage to customize it myself. and so a month went...
Finally, I've had it and put it on the "workbench".
My aim here was primarily to reduce the weight of the blade and to reduce the handle so it fits my hand like a glove.
Note the enormously (for a small knife) thick spine...and the part within the handle doesn't really taper down either.
OK, so no biggie then...
I've drilled the aluminum studs and carefully separated the handles.
Boy does this laha (glue) hold tight or what.
Of to the grinder and belt sander.
Making sure the blade is cooled frequently in water I've ground away the bottom part of the blade to a more sharper angle. If you look back at the first picture, you'll see the difference.
The original angle is so fat that prohibits the blade from chopping properly, let alone cutting meat as it pushes it aside too much too soon.
Going from blade to handle:
I've decided that the enormous "finger guard" has to be slimmed down too.
Hey, every gram counts. So I've cut it almost in half, very carefully with a hacksaw.
Note the still thick spine of the handle part:
And after some more grinding and thinning:
a more sensible thickness of the handle spine part.
Well that's it: more or less done with the metal bashing.
I've never touched the blade's edges, or got them hot during all of this.
Now: because I've cut the finger guard in half, the handle scales don't fit anymore correctly, so I've drilled new holes for them and reshaped the half pieces to fit as perfect as I could.
I've also reshaped the back of the knife (bolster) to be able to drill a hole there for a lineyard...later got off the idea, but it still makes a nice skull crusher and I can still drill out that hole if needed.
Time to put the handle back together with some epoxy.
Messy business, so no pic's of it.
I've cut the handle pins to size +1mm over each side.
Made absolutely sure that everything fits ok dry fitted.
Countersink the handle holes ever so slightly (not too deep)
then mixed the glue and applied.
Pins go in, all in a hurry cause the glue is setting. Note the pins are larger than the original, but this is Africa and I had difficulty finding the same sizes.
Then mushroomed the ends of the pins as properly as I could with small hammer and let the glue to dry hard.
Two days later, I've filed the excess heads of the pins to be inline with the handle, cleaned up everything and in general finished the knife.
One problem remained, the slippery handle.
So, taking inspiration from Rajkumar (the original maker of the Bowie)
I've used a smal triangle file to make some grooves in the handle scales.
It didn't turn out too bad IMHO. No more slippery handle.
And here's the finished Vojpuri Bowie back in it's original scabbard.
I'm thinking of making a new one of those too...some other time.
Overall "improvements":
Weight 405 gram (a whole 100 gram exactly taken of the knife's weight)
Slimmer, somewhat shorter and not so slippery handle.
I've sharpened the first part of the top of the blade too (and intentionally dulled the second part).
Much better balance overall.
I did my best to preserve the original HI markings on the knife.
This custom baby is now beyond scary sharp and pointy.
I've cut meat and chopped with it too. No problems. OK, it is not a dedicated chopper but it's not suppose to be. However, it does quite well for size and weight around the camp fire.
I'm thinking of pairing it with a gift that auntie send me...a small utility karda like knife with a handle from Pala himself.
Note to me: I do need another 'dual' scabbard.
Thanks Auntie! I've sharpen it and now gets used for fine detail jobs.
I hope you like my ramblings.
DanSmithy
It's been long time now since my last sharking
or visit to the forum for that matter.Lots of new guys here...lots of new exiting stuff.
Reason for post: Awhile ago I've ordered a custom Vojpuri Bowie from auntie, and
as you would imagine with custom stuff it took a good month to arrive. Shop floods, misfortune, me living at world's end, customs, you name it, it happened.
Finally I got the khuk together with some others I've been holding on stand by.
Box opened in a hurry, brief decision time as to which one to slide of the scabbard first...of-coarse...the Bowie.
I should say upfront that, when I've ordered the Bowie, I did not specify anything but for the blade not to have a Cho. So HI or auntie is not to blame for my "dislikes" below.
First impressions... something is wrong.
Perhaps I've been imagining it for so long, I forgot what it should look like.
Slightly rusted blade, nothing a good rub won't fix. Not a problem, we know there was a flood in the shop.
Handling / balance - not good...tipping heavily to the front for such a small blade.
Sharpness - scary.
Weight - scary too. 505 gram without the scabbard.
Handle - almost squire, beaffy and longer than required/needed. Very slippery too.
Cho - missing, as per the order. no surprises there.
Here's a pic:
This was to be a everyday carry in the bush knife.
Slightly disappointed, I've put it away in the hope I'll like it the next day.
Not so...same feeling. Put it away again and started collecting courage to customize it myself. and so a month went...
Finally, I've had it and put it on the "workbench".
My aim here was primarily to reduce the weight of the blade and to reduce the handle so it fits my hand like a glove.
Note the enormously (for a small knife) thick spine...and the part within the handle doesn't really taper down either.
OK, so no biggie then...
I've drilled the aluminum studs and carefully separated the handles.
Boy does this laha (glue) hold tight or what.
Of to the grinder and belt sander.
Making sure the blade is cooled frequently in water I've ground away the bottom part of the blade to a more sharper angle. If you look back at the first picture, you'll see the difference.
The original angle is so fat that prohibits the blade from chopping properly, let alone cutting meat as it pushes it aside too much too soon.
Going from blade to handle:
I've decided that the enormous "finger guard" has to be slimmed down too.
Hey, every gram counts. So I've cut it almost in half, very carefully with a hacksaw.
Note the still thick spine of the handle part:
And after some more grinding and thinning:
a more sensible thickness of the handle spine part.
Well that's it: more or less done with the metal bashing.
I've never touched the blade's edges, or got them hot during all of this.
Now: because I've cut the finger guard in half, the handle scales don't fit anymore correctly, so I've drilled new holes for them and reshaped the half pieces to fit as perfect as I could.
I've also reshaped the back of the knife (bolster) to be able to drill a hole there for a lineyard...later got off the idea, but it still makes a nice skull crusher and I can still drill out that hole if needed.
Time to put the handle back together with some epoxy.
Messy business, so no pic's of it.
I've cut the handle pins to size +1mm over each side.
Made absolutely sure that everything fits ok dry fitted.
Countersink the handle holes ever so slightly (not too deep)
then mixed the glue and applied.
Pins go in, all in a hurry cause the glue is setting. Note the pins are larger than the original, but this is Africa and I had difficulty finding the same sizes.
Then mushroomed the ends of the pins as properly as I could with small hammer and let the glue to dry hard.
Two days later, I've filed the excess heads of the pins to be inline with the handle, cleaned up everything and in general finished the knife.
One problem remained, the slippery handle.
So, taking inspiration from Rajkumar (the original maker of the Bowie)
I've used a smal triangle file to make some grooves in the handle scales.
It didn't turn out too bad IMHO. No more slippery handle.
And here's the finished Vojpuri Bowie back in it's original scabbard.
I'm thinking of making a new one of those too...some other time.
Overall "improvements":
Weight 405 gram (a whole 100 gram exactly taken of the knife's weight)
Slimmer, somewhat shorter and not so slippery handle.
I've sharpened the first part of the top of the blade too (and intentionally dulled the second part).
Much better balance overall.
I did my best to preserve the original HI markings on the knife.
This custom baby is now beyond scary sharp and pointy.
I've cut meat and chopped with it too. No problems. OK, it is not a dedicated chopper but it's not suppose to be. However, it does quite well for size and weight around the camp fire.
I'm thinking of pairing it with a gift that auntie send me...a small utility karda like knife with a handle from Pala himself.
Note to me: I do need another 'dual' scabbard.
Thanks Auntie! I've sharpen it and now gets used for fine detail jobs.
I hope you like my ramblings.
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