Handle material suggestions for custom kukri??

fishface5 said:
Kailash blades uses all options but says that stacked leather washers on their kuk handles are the best at reducing felt impact
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I've always wondered about that stacked leather -How it would react to moisture. Very comfortable, indeed, but seems like it could harbor some nasty stuff. No?
 
shortwinger said:
People think Buffalo horn handles are hard, cold, and slippery but I love them. To me they feel soft, organic, and very comfortable, even with extended use. I keep mine conditioned with hooflex and soak in mineral oil. Both wood and horn handled kukri need to be treated with care, they take a tremendous impact with regular use and without care they will crack, break, or shrink and become loose.

If I were having a “user” kukri custom made I would probably try micarta or G10. If it were a show piece kept in a house I would find a nice piece of horn with some color in it. Beautiful and traditional.
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Yeah, I definitely want it to be a user kukri -At least in theory. I am designing my "one tool option", so I definitely want to have "hard use" in mind. I wonder how long micarta and G10 have been around...? Wood and horn been around forever. There are knives that are Centuries old that still have wood handles on them...
 
T.M.A. said:
So cool to know! Thank you for informing me!

On that same note -My mother has a bunch of blades with wooden handles that she's sent through the dishwasher a million times. Those handles are now totally trashed and faded and porous and some of them even cracked. What would I do to "restore" them??
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For my wooden handled kitchen knives I put them handle down in a quart jar with enough boiled linseed oil to cover the handles and let them sit overnight. Drain and wipe them off the next day and put them back in the knife rack. Do this about once a year and they seem to like it.
 
Boattale said:
For my wooden handled kitchen knives I put them handle down in a quart jar with enough boiled linseed oil to cover the handles and let them sit overnight. Drain and wipe them off the next day and put them back in the knife rack. Do this about once a year and they seem to like it.
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SWEET!

Many thanks!

Any "food safe" wood filler you recommend to repair the cracks? Also, the boiled linseed oil -Do you just get that from the hardware store, or...? I use it for painting sometimes (oil painter) and I use the "refined" stuff from Windsor and Newton, but I suspect the stuff you are talking about is different.
 
I do prefer linen micarta

High performance longbows and recurves use phenolic’s like Micarta in their limb tips and other parts and in that application it is due to the way the material deals with shock and stress

Find a nice chink of linen Micarta in a color you like and don’t look back

You can even go white :)

 
JParanee said:
I do prefer linen micarta

High performance longbows and recurves use phenolic’s like Micarta in their limb tips and other parts and in that application it is due to the way the material deals with shock and stress

Find a nice chink of linen Micarta in a color you like and don’t look back

You can even go white :)

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You just have to rub it in, don't ch'ya?

Haha!

Thanks for the advice!

Sweet blades!


-T
 
For all these materials but particularly buffalo horn surface finish is a big part of deciding the feel, grip and wet weather performance of the handle.
Polished horn can be extremely slick which is where it may have developed a negative reputation, but if it's roughed up a bit can be quite an inviting grip.
 
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