X-Ray A Kuk?

cavetech

cavetech

Joined
Nov 25, 2005
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I am interested in how and where the rat tail tangs run through the kuks. Also, how fat they might be inside the handle.

Does anyone on the forum have a medical background and is familier with x-ray taking? I would like to see several kuks lined up on an x-ray table and the resulting picture inside their handles.

It might even show if cavities not filled with laha occur.

Can this be done? Might be worth a few bucks for an x-ray just to satisfy my curiosity.
 
Steve, if you look through the archives a bit, you'll a number of threads with pictures of 'naked' tangs from re-handling projects. :)
 
Steve,

I trained in the USAF Radiology Specialist program, AFSC 903X0, back in 1975-1976.
It depends on how accurate an image of the tang you want.
Medical equipment would have no trouble penetrating the horn or wood handles, or Laha, but most likely would only yield a very low detail of the tang itself. A 150 kv machine just doesn't have the punch, even with 3-phase rectification.
I X-Rayed people, a field mouse, Military dogs, Guitar cables, Defib paddle cables, even a couple of large format camera lenses.
I never tried anything as dense as a Khuk, using medical equipment.

The alternative is to get an Industrial Testing Lab to do a shot, using
a radioactive source (usually Strontium), like used on pipe welds etc..
You would be able to see the grain detail in the metal, I should think.

DaddyDett
 
Steve Poll said:
I am interested in how and where the rat tail tangs run through the kuks. Also, how fat they might be inside the handle.

Does anyone on the forum have a medical background and is familier with x-ray taking?
Click to expand...

Steve you might check with Cliff Stamp and see if he has any information on this subject. Seems to me there was an X-Ray done on another maker's knife handle one time to see what was up with the tangs on them.
Didn't have anything to do with khukuris but if anyone has any info it could be Cliff.
 
Steve Poll said:
I am interested in how and where the rat tail tangs run through the kuks. Also, how fat they might be inside the handle.

Does anyone on the forum have a medical background and is familier with x-ray taking? I would like to see several kuks lined up on an x-ray table and the resulting picture inside their handles.

It might even show if cavities not filled with laha occur.

Can this be done? Might be worth a few bucks for an x-ray just to satisfy my curiosity.
Click to expand...

Steve, as I may have mentioned before I can absolutely tell you that cavities not filled with laha do occur from time to time. I think this is esp. true with chiruwa style handles. In the West we're used to handle panels being fit exactly to the exposed tang, but when working with horn especially I don't think that is always possible.

I have one relatively rare horn chiruwa BGRS that has a small area of putty that had been filled in where the horn met the tang. It was very hard but didn't look right to me, so I pushed on it with a pick (well dug at it until something happened!), and a piece of the red putty fell into the handle. It was hollow in that one area. But the handle slabs were rock solid and well pinned to the tang, and it looked good. I filled it with a bit of colored epoxy for looks, but had I not done so I'm sure it would have held up.

For non-chiruwa handles, I learned from a video we watched at Gin's house during last year's SWKK, that the kami's take a piece of horn with a small starter hole, fill the hole with laha, and then force the red hot tang down into the handle. It burns its way down into the handle and then the laha solidifies around it. Then the buttcap and bolster are fitted and the tang peened over, and then the whole thing is sanded and the handle grooves are cut, etc.

I think an X-ray would reveal some gaps in the handle around the tang, and some areas where the laha had not reached, but I have yet to see a handle fail because of this.

Thanks,

Norm
 
This has been pretty interesting to me. The more powerful x-rays are something I will look into next week and see if it is done around here. If it is reasonable I will take my kuks, antique and new, and have it done.

My curiosity stems from my handle boring for tangs. Some tangs go straight back from the blade and some angle down. Thought I'd look "inside" kuk handles.

Also, I have noticed that some kuk handles sound solid for the front half and hollow for the rear/butt half. Guess I'd like to see why. A handle made from solid wood or horn and burned in as well as filled with laka should sound very solid it seems.

I'd welcome input on my wanderings here.
 
I would recommed meeting someone at your local courthouse and ask them if they use an x-ray machine for sceening packages, they usually do. Then ask them if you could pass them through the machine while you watch. You can stop the machine and view the image right then. Some of the machines have different filters that allow different density views along with the metal areas highlighted in color. The only one I've ever laughed about was when a lady asked to send her dog through!
 
DaddyDett said:
...
It depends on how accurate an image of the tang you want.
Medical equipment would have no trouble penetrating the horn or wood handles, or Laha, but most likely would only yield a very low detail of the tang itself.
...
The alternative is to get an Industrial Testing Lab to do a shot, using
a radioactive source (usually Strontium), like used on pipe welds etc..
You would be able to see the grain detail in the metal, I should think.
Click to expand...

I think 150 kv x-rays would penetrate the handle and laha fine, but might give only a shadow of the tang.

Gamma radiographers usually use Ir-192 or Co-60. I have never run into any using Sr-90.
 
Cool idea. Get'r done.
 
Howard Wallace said:
I think 150 kv x-rays would penetrate the handle and laha fine, but might give only a shadow of the tang.

Gamma radiographers usually use Ir-192 or Co-60. I have never run into any using Sr-90.
Click to expand...

Could be my bad memory here, Howard. I was briefly indoctrinated to industrial radiography in 1979-80, in Port Arthur, Tx.. What I learned there was that I wanted nothing to do with the very poor radiation safety practices I saw at that company.

I don't think I ever saw a medical machine with greater than 150 KV capability. I remember us getting a sh*t-hot GE unit at RAF Lakenheath, with a 300 ma, 150 kv, 3-phase cabaility. That unit was state of the art at that time.

DaddyDett
 
DaddyDett said:
Could be my bad memory here, Howard. I was briefly indoctrinated to industrial radiography in 1979-80, in Port Arthur, Tx.. What I learned there was that I wanted nothing to do with the very poor radiation safety practices I saw at that company.

I don't think I ever saw a medical machine with greater than 150 KV capability. I remember us getting a sh*t-hot GE unit at RAF Lakenheath, with a 300 ma, 150 kv, 3-phase cabaility. That unit was state of the art at that time.

DaddyDett
Click to expand...

Hey, I live just 15 or so miles away from Port Arthur, in Beaumont, TX...
I do not think that he would want the high power x-rays anyway... He does not want to see the structure inside the metal, but the structure inside the HANDLE... With high power, all he would see would be the blade, with no detail of the handle...
 
My 2 post's intent was to give him options, whichever he wanted to visualize.

If I ever go back to Texas, I think it would be to the Hill Country, rather than southeast Texas.

DaddyDett
 
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