Wood or Buffalo Horn?

C

Craig Gottlieb

Joined
Mar 8, 1999
Messages
1,760
I got an email from a customer who'd ordered an engraved presentation and a kothimora - quite a hefty purchase. We'll, here's a quotation from their email, which shall remain anonymous:

"The engraving and custom sheathes are beautiful, but, I am a
little disappointed in the handles. They were advertised as water
buffalo horn, but, appear to be wood."

Well, needless to say, they weren't wood, but I wanted to ask this: how can somebody prove to themselves that waterbuffalo horn isn't wood (I can understand them mistaking it for plastic, but not wood)? These guys meant no harm - they just haven't seen a khukuri before, I think.

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Craig Gottlieb
Gurkha House
Blade Forums Sponsor
 
Craig,
I'm reasonably sure this will work, but am not about to test it on one of my khukuris, because it _is_ going to leave a mark. If you heat a sewing needle to red hot and press it into the horn, you should get the unmistakable stench of burning hair. [Required legal disclaimer: do not hold red hot needle with bare hand!!!
smile.gif
].
Berk
 
Berk: spoken like a true barrister! I'll email that suggestion to them, but hopefully, pointing out that I'd be shortly out of business if I started pulling stunts like that should work - if they are the logical type.

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Craig Gottlieb
Gurkha House
Blade Forums Sponsor
 
Craig,

I would send an E-mail and ask them to consider sending the knife back for inspection to insure that a mistake did not slip through and assure them that if it is wood that you will promptly replace the knife.

I have never handled Buffalo Horn but I assume that it has a distintive grain pattern or based on the plastic comment a distinctive lack of a grain pattern.

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AKTI Member No. A000370
 
Normally, that's exactly what I'd do, except that I know that I don't offer the presentation models and kothimora models with wood handles (and wood is so obviously different when you compare two of them side by side). I do remember that when I gave the bhojpure to bladeforums to give away, somebody there mentioned that the winner "wouldn't be happy that the black was rubbing off of the wood in places." Of course, what he was seeing was the white grain common in about 1 of 10 waterbuffalo handles.

Easy mistake to make, I think, if one doesn't see waterbuffalo horn every day. Incidentally, I LIKE the white graining when I can find it.



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Craig Gottlieb
Gurkha House
Blade Forums Sponsor
 
I don't see how someone could mistake water buffalo horn for wood. Maybe he's used to antler and thought it would be the unpolished natural look of horn.

Maybe if you explain to him how horn is mounted. I recall a few pictures on your website.

Buffalo horn is essentially the same thing as fingernails. It feels the same way too. Quite different from wood.

 
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