It had been truly home-crafted for him by a relative there. Im not sure out of what steel the blade was hammered from- possibly an old leaf spring ? It is much thicker than a typical machete blade is normally made of.
The handle scales had been carved and sanded out of Water Buffalo horn.
But, over the years, it seems that water had made it's way into some of the gaps between the handle and the full tang, resulting in the rusting of the cross-pins that run through the handles, and the tang, making them quiet loose.
This thing is truly massive- the blade is right around 14 inches in length, and tapers from the tang to the tip from roughly 1/4th inch, near the handle.
Here it is compared to my Modern Pugio combat/field knife model: (of which Opus and Splinter received the 1st two that I made)
And next to one of my soon-to-come large knives..
So, over the next several days, I will try to find the best way to remove the handles, and their pins-without damaging the handles. Once done, I'll look over the tang, and see what needs to be done underneath the handles to fix things up a bit, and then I will re-attach the handles, and seal the gaps.
After that, I plan to clean up and hone the blade as best I can, and I plan to make a nice, rugged sheath for this Beastie !
It'll be interesting to see if you can re-use the horn handles. They look fairly solid with no visible splits.
ReplyDeleteI've really been hoping to, but upon working with it today, a corner edge of it crumbled off into my hand. The original horn is somewhat dried- out, and brittle, and I'm concerned they might break on their own sometime down the road...
ReplyDeleteI may end up having to remove the current Buffalo panels, and replace them either with new, fresh ones, or with wood handles instead.
Discussed it with Brian, and we have decided to keep the original handles on the knife.
ReplyDeleteWith that, I will continue to look at a way of securing the handles better, so they arent so loose.