Two village models. Pix and deal.

Bill Martino

Bill Martino

Joined
Mar 5, 1999
Messages
34,096
Top -- 14 inches and 14 ounces. Good hard blade. Rosewood handle for smaller hands and full length tang as far as I can tell. Doesn't look so ugly for village model. Karda and chakma rough but useable. Very good scabbard and frog.

Take it away for $40.

Bottom -- 13.5 inches and 18 ounces. Tough little bulldog. Good hard blade. Bigger handle for bigger hands. Rosewood handle -- small chip gone forward bottom. Karda and chakma rough but can be used. Very good scabbard and frog.

Chip saves $5. Take it home for $35.
 

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Just wondering if why you couldnt just re-hilt the handle with natural pitch, when the time comes. Im assuming the failure comes when the original pitch dries out, and the blade then becomes loose in the handle. Its a similar problem with old Filipino bolos and moro swords, but its relatively easy to fix. I like fixing with pitch (Ive tried epoxies as well but feel pitch is more versatile), if decent quality it adds a certain amount of shock absorbtion, and generally is solid as a rock. Better yet, if need be, a little heat will remove the pitch, and the whole thing can be re-done/repaired easily. Though it will suffer the same problem of eventually wearing out in heavy usage, but then it could always be re-fixed again.
 
Federico,
What kind of pitch are you using? Do you add anything to it?
Have you found a good way to heat the pitch inside a wood handle without darkening the wood?
 
Ive been using Pitch Black on the advice of a friend. The local silver smithing supply had it, so I didnt look much further. I guess theres a company that sells a variety of pitches, in different flavors, but Ive been satisfied with Pitch Black's performance. Its retained a good consistency, and hasnt become over-brittle as sometimes happens with over-heating pitch. The blades Ive re-hilted have held up so far. The pitch seems to be very forgiving to various heat. Anyways the pitch when it arrived to me was solid, so the only way Ive been able to use it has been to heat it till liquid and then pour into the handle cavity till full, and then to heat tang of blade with torch (not red hot just warm enough to heat the pitch) and place into already full handle, wipe off excess. Havent had problems with heat scarring on the handle, Ive done so far wood, horn, and metal hilts, and all have seemed fine. Then again Ive tried keep the tang heat is relatively low since the pitch seems to cool faster, and less messy than when the tang is super hot. Hope this makes sense, my ability to write coherently seems to be escaping me at the moment.
 
Your writing is fine. Part of my question isn't clear enough though. If you remove a wood handle that's been put on with pitch, how do you heat the handle enough to soften the pitch without discoloring the wood? Putting the handle in boiling water always leaches out some of the wood's color and darkens the wood or leaves it looking faded. Have you found a way to avoid this?
 
Well in general I would prefer not to take of the handle if it didnt need it (most cases in which the pitch was dry, the blade easily came out with a little persistent moving), I have though de-handled a few a few pieces to make repairs. I normally heat the blade with a torch near the handle, trying to isolate the heat as much as possible, while also rocking the blade to fascilitate the removal. Most of the time, due to the relatively low melting point of the pitch, the problems with heat damage to the temper have not been an issue, especially since in general the blades Ive worked on are considerably thicker at the base. I do notice that if I try and help the blade out, things go better, rather than waiting for all the pitch to melt. Then I can pick out any of the excess old pitch if need be. The big problem I have is with hot pitch spilling out all over the place. While not overly hot, still doesnt feel good. I have used wet towels to hold the blade and handle, and that does seem to help isolate the heat even more, but primarily though its for my own protection against hot pitch. I havent had much damage to the handles in this process, they do get a little dry, but nothing too noticeable. hmm hope this is understandable.
 
Fed, the kamis have the same problem. Many of them choose to work in chapels, (thongs), and hot pitch on the toes is always good for a quick dance routine.
 
I recently received one of the villagers.
14" 18 oz. partial tang.

One of the "bulldog" types, sorta looks like a Ghopte with an angle in the spine.

Very nicely balanced and chops quite well considering the lighter weight. The roseswood handle is among the best shaped I've held. The kami put quite a lot of work into it. Quite flat, and very comfortable. The "ugly but useable" karda and chakma have cleaned up very well with sanding/filing of blade and handle. Chakma pretty thin and knife-like though. The khuk will look very nice with a little blade sanding.

The scabbard is worth close to the cost by itself. Very well made of very thick leather and fits the khuk perfectly. Tool loops need a little work. Frog is riveted, but certainly OK.

The flats are a little concave, almost like one big fuller, and the spine is about 1/2". Was this shape forged or did it happen from a grinding clean-up at BirGhorka? Both? Nice convex edge.

I thought I was buying a beater, but as soon as I picked it up, I knew it was going to get a beauty treatment. A real bargain and a very nice size/weight to carry.

Still debating with myself on putting a pin in the handle, or going Fed's way....
 
I don't think BirGorkha did any major grinding -- just sort of brushing it up. I have no idea where these last villagers came from. Sometimes I'll get the story on where they picked them up but not often. But, this last dozen were not as ugly as usual.
 
Just want to clear up one thing, re-hilting with pitch was a suggestion on what to do if it fails. It wont prevent failures, well I suppose depending on the pitch they used it may be just a little more secure. Anyways in my experience natural pitch tends to be pretty strong, and while it does eventually wear out that depends more on the evironment and how much you use it. Ive seen old bolos that had many years of hard daily use that never needed to be re-hilted.

Anyways Uncle Bill Ill think of the kamis next time I do the hot pitch dance;):D :D
 
Just want to clear up one thing, re-hilting with pitch was a suggestion on what to do if it fails.
Click to expand...

Understood. I meant just accepting the possible future need to refix the handle instead of pinning it now. I'm not quite comfortable drilling a tang with an unknown width. I might more likely to put a pin in at the time of regluing though.
 
Fed - When you re-hilt a knife, do you ever file notches in the tang, and/or score the inside of the handle, to give the pitch extra places to "grab" when it sets up, or do you feel this is unecessary?
 
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