shaping horse stall mat handles

R

rwn2000

Joined
Jan 6, 2003
Messages
716
What is the best way to shape horse stall mat handles? My grinder is a Bader BIII (not variable speed) and I have 60, 120, and 220 belts. The 60 grit removes material slowly and makes a lot of stinky black smoke. I have only done one other handle with this material and I dont remember it being this muchof a pain. What am I doing wrong? Thanksfor any suggestions.

Randy
 
I was told by the guys at Midwest knife makers supply to shape with 60grit and finish with 120grit.
As for the smoke/smell maybe check your belts. If you are using old clogged belts you might be generating too much friction. Just a guess though.
 
The bad news is, you absolutely have to use sharp, fresh belts on soft material like that. Dull or glazed belts will just smear it, and the "rubber" will clog your belts quickly.
The good news is, grinding neoprene/stall mat etc. doesn't actually dull belts very much at all, and normal maintenance* will clean up your belts just fine... leaving them quite useful for normal metal grinding.

* run a HARD end-mill or masonry bit across the belt with a fair amount of pressure at full speed to re-fracture the chunks of abrasive on the belt. Run a rubber "eraser" across it at speed to help pull the gunk out from between the abrasive crystals.
 
you can also cut it to shape with a knife and then save the grinding for cleaning up the rough cuts
 
Let's take a step back and examine why we would use horse-stall mat, neoprene, Kraton etc. in the first place.

There's no question that those materials are "grippy"... generally touted as somewhat easier to hold onto when the handle is wet or greasy, than G10 or micarta.

But in my experience, the difference in "grippiness" is over-rated if the handle is designed well in the first place, and really doesn't make much difference at all if the handle is in fact wet or greasy. For instance, a poorly-shaped Kraton handle (I'm thinking of the stock CS TrailMaster in particular) will absolutely want to fly out of your hand if you use it in a driving rain for heavy chopping.

But! you may say, a rubbery handle can be deeply checkered... that makes no difference at all, because other synthetics and natural materials can also be checkered/textured. The TM handle I spoke of was nicely-checkered, and that was absolutely no help.

Soft materials can be obviously be squeezed harder by the user, adding to control and "gription". But I defer to noted designer Ethan Becker, who famously said (I'm paraphrasing here) "If you have to go to a soft handle material, maybe you're not done designing your handle yet."

I discussed this very topic with Mr. Becker at his Gathering a few weeks ago; neither of us could remember his exact original quote at the time, but he agreed that we had the jist of it.

My point is, if you have to really squeeze the handle to hold onto the knife in use, it's a very poor design. If the dang thing hurts your hand when you use it, it's bad. If it wants to slip out of your grasp in exuberant use, it's bad.

If you don't have to think much about holding onto the handle, and can use it comfortably without much thought or effort, and it doesn't hurt or cause blisters, it's a very good handle design. I'm convinced that geometry plays a far greater role than materials.

If you're relying on shock-absorption to make a knife more comfortable and efficient to use, you're just fooling yourself. If a cutting implement feels like a brick or sends pain up your wrist/arm when you use it hard, it's a poor design. No matter what you make the handle out of, that's not going to change.

There may be extreme examples, like competition cutters (where horse-stall mat is very popular as a handle material) that may transcend these basic concepts. I remain to be convinced of that, and I'm very interested to hear more about it.
 
Last edited:
I use neoprene and horse-stall matting for skinner handles. Hunters seem to like it. They say it is more comfortable when cold, and are far less slippery when bloody/wet.

The tricks are sharp belts and slower speed. If you only have a fixed speed Bader, you will have a lot more problems. Shape at 60/80 grit and finish at 120 grit. You will never get it pretty, so don't try. You can give it a final touch up with 120 grit paper by hand.
 
thanks, guys. I will try a new belt and JT's advice for keeping it clean.

James, I agree with you on handle design. Soft material is not a shortcut. this knife is a special purpose knife for my cousin. He works for a sports equipment company that makes and installs the safety padding down the foul lines and other areas at baseball stadiums. They are 3 inch vinyl-backed foam and custom made to fit but sometimes field adjustments have to be made, (cut-outs for hand rails, lights, etc). He did the install on one MLB stadium this spring where almost all of the pads were made wrong and needed to be trimmed. He ended up pulling an all-nighter with just a box-cutter to get them installed for opening day. So I'm trying to come up with something that will work better than that. I chose the horse stall mat because he might actually be using it for 8-10 hours a day on a big install.

randy


randy
 
I keep a chunk of stall may near the grinder to unclog my belts, it works great with the right pressure.

I have a knife I use a lot with stall mat scales, I am a big fan of the material. It is comfortable over a long day of use...
 


it isnt pretty but here it is. raking the 60 grit belt with an old end mill did the trick ( thanks, James T.)
 
I'm going to put a set onto a lovely Bolo by Big Chris and i only have access to sand paper. Anything to watch out whilst shaping this handle with sandpaper and elbow grease, post cutting out the profile?
 
James,

I re-read your feedback and it reminds me of Dan Keffeler's handle; he did some of the most ergonomically-shaped handles (probably as what he quoted, his background as chiropractic practitioner helps) and he uses almost exclusively Tero-Tuff:
[video=youtube;1K5US5a68lI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K5US5a68lI[/video]

My take on this is unless i send the maker a hardened plasticine of my grip, most of the time reshaping the handle on the choppers i own is required.
In the armpits of South East Asia, sweating buckets are common; having to slice free-hanging thorny and tiny vines to chopping fallen branches and logs on my weekend getaway, the handle could get very slippery (unless we developed nice callus on hot spot prone palm if we allow the handle to be roughened for grip) and most of the cutting action here- flip of wrist doesn't quite allow lanyard to be use. A properly shaped handle, preferably a shock-absorbing one is useful and easy on your joints. Swiping grasses on a steep hill along the trail with a lanyard on your handle isn't the best precautionary measure (should you slip, you can just drop the blade but with a lanyard you might have the blade coming towards you on a loose lanyard.). A poorly design handle together with stiff handles (hardwood, dense material) isn’t the best idea for a lost, dehydrated and nervous hiker as the nature closing in.

I'm fascinated by the construction of a traditional Khukuri handle, especially the ring on the middle. It houses the gap between middle and ring finger, firmly holds the palm at its centroid and prevents the slippage upon the flick of wrist for chopping or best grip for choke up/stabbing. It's the Nepalese version of finger guard.
If you apply Western style of chopping (straight handle) you will most likely remove this ring for great discomfort. Again we will have to consider the design of the handle- a pistol-like grip to keep the wrist at ease for a long period of use at the field.

Before considering stall mat (people looked at me like i'm crazy to even use it here), i used recycled bicycle tube to shroud the handle but it slipped off the handle quick. I plan to shape the handle to Coke handle and then work from there.
 
Last edited:
Does anyone have any experience with Gutta Percha? If so is it similar to work? Are there any sources for handle scale or small turning block size pieces? Best I can tell it is only used in the dental industry for root canals now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top