hmong knife from French Guiana

[kronckew]

last time i did that i had foamy gorilla glue all over the place, definitely do not wait for it to harden before you trim it. i was gluing an alpine spike ferrule on the end of a fokos/ciupaga walking stick axe. the dollup of glue expanded and pushed the ferrule off. i removed some foam reseated it, and the foam pushed it off again. removed more foam, cut a shallow relief groove, reseated it and kept cleaning foam oozing out for about an hour. it finally stopped. that ferrule ain't coming off no how, no way, not ever i barely managed to keep my hands from getting stuck to the axe shaft.

the longer sword has a 1 in. wide tang about 3/8" thick that goes all the way to just before the pommel, then has a short screw rod welded to it to hold the pommel nut that holds it all together., which is also a counterweight. the bolster is about 3/16 thick stainless steel. the shorter one was polished unlike the longer one which is etched to show the hamon, but is the same steel &heat treatment. it has two pins thru the tang that you can see, which again is about an inch wide and terminates threaded into the pommel.

they were made by serge cozun darbs, in aranyik, but he started having QC problems and no longer is on the interweb. the smiths in aranyik however still keep on making these swords and knives the same as they have done for centuries.

[Robert]

Blue lander, Before you use Gorilla glue or anything else please consider removing the blade, cleaning the tang or all rust (which is more than likely what caused the wood to split in the first place) gluing and clamping the wooden hilt back to its original state and then refitting the blade using your choice of adhesive to hold it in place. If this is something you plan on using on a regular basis, may I suggest using either epoxy or epoxy putty to permanently fix it in position. If you are not planning on using this for severe service than damar or cutlers adhesive might be a better choice. JMHO

Best,
Robert

[blue lander]

You're probably right. The blade was coated with something like cosmolene so it was rust free, but that wouldn't have kept rust from sneaking into the hilt. I'm also worried that some sort of "traditional" adhesive that might have dried up and cracked.

It sounds like gorilla glue would be a bad idea too.

[kronckew]

not sure what thais use, but khukuris use 'laha', also known as himalayan epoxy. it's a mix of tree resin, bees wax, powdered brick and (dried) water buffalo or yak dung. may also have hair mixed in. a similar mix is used to hold tulwar blades to their handles. it is thermo-setting, if you heat the grip to around the boiling point of water, it softens and the parts can be dislocated. wood/horn khukuri grips can be placed in a oven bag then held in a pot of boiling water till the stuff is soft enough to loosen. older khukuris with loose grips can be fixed by thus re-melting the laha.

it smells wonderful. if you are married, do NOT do this in the kitchen unless you want an immediate divorce.

there are recipes for laha, or western cultlers cement, or equivalents, if i recall, posted here on the fora. or google. some of the recipes are actually not smelly enough to alienate your significant other. if the knife is to be part of a collection, the more traditional goop would be better.

epoxy is essentially forever. heating it hot enough to melt it loose i suspect would permanently damage the wood.

[blue lander]

Thanks for the heads up about the smell. That link I put in the first post shows that other guys French Guiana Hmong knife and his blade came loose and it does look like some sort of natural resin was used. I was thinking of dunking it in boiled linseed oil to see of the hilt plumps up a bit and the crack closes.

[Robert]

If there is not a oversized tang socket in the handle and very little extra space to fill this is the best recipe for cutlers wax I've found so far. It also has the extra benefit of actually smelling nice when being prepared for use.

In a double boiler mix:
8 oz pine pitch or damar,
1/4 cup Carnauba wax
4 oz beeswax
Stir until well mixed. Have the hilt warmed slightly to help keep the wax from setting to fast. Carefully pour mixture into socket and insert heated tang. Brace for a few minutes until wax sets.

If there is a lot of space to fill just add charcoal crushed into a powder to this mixture to take up the extra space and for added strength.

If you are going to be using this for doing a lot of cutting or hacking limbs from trees I would still use epoxy, but that is just my personal opinion.

Best,
Robert

[Robert]

Just asking a question about the name of these knives, is it hmong or enep? I too have one example of these knives and seeing that there are not that many shown on the forum I thought I would add it here as well. Instead of a wooden scabbard mine has one made of rattan similar to the second one down in Kronckews photo. Unlike the others shown above it also has some designs stamped into each side of the blade. Sorry about the very poor photo quality, but at the present these are the only ones that I have.

Best,
Robert