Mojo Micarta Golok Handle

[Pict]

I put this in DIY for the process I used on the handle of my new favorite machete. The blade profile, edge/spine mods, sheath and handle are all the result of an ongoing DIY project.

In my ongoing quest for the perfect bushcraft machete I think I’m getting there. I don’t want to say I have arrived at the perfect machete for fear of upsetting everyone. Let’s just say that I’m planning to camp here for a while.

Last week I took my modified Tramontina golok out for a test drive and it did really well. I had gone out there with a cord wrap in the inlet handle area that I knew wasn’t going to work well in the field. I ended up removing it mid day and covering up the sharp edges of the wood with duct tape to save my hand. The machete worked so well that I had to come up with a permanent solution for the handle.

I decided to go out on a limb and try an experimental technique (for me at least), micarta wrap. I used 24 hour epoxy resin and a pair of old rip-stop woodland BDU’s. These were a pair that I had used for years and wore out. I had used them on a 10 day canoe trip in Algonquin Park that I took with my wife and countless other trips. Once they got replaced they were used for a while by students on many trips here in Brazil. In short there was a lot of good mojo in those pants. Due to catastrophic crotch failure they finally got retired. I’ve been planning to make micarta out of them for a long time.

I covered the inlet portion of the wood with a thin coat of epoxy and then started to wind the cloth around it in @1/2 inch strips, covering it with a thin coat of epoxy as I went. Once the winding was higher than the wood all around I let it set for 48 hours. Yesterday I took a file to it to lower it flush with the wood and sanded it to 220 grit. A top coat of superglue and a 320 grit sanding was all it took to finish.

So here it is, my mojo micarta wrap modified Tramontina Golok. Consider me officially “chuffed”.

Close up detail. I like that you can see it was made from rip-stop.

In the sheath. I’ll be doing this again.

Mac

 

[pwb]

No wonder your chuffed that worked out really well, like the pattern too .

Nothing worse than "Catastrophic crotch failure " .

 

[Pict]

As I was doing it I was thinking, "Either this is going to work great or I'm going to spend a week getting it off and have to make a whole new handle." My dad was a pioneer in the field of Kevlar/Epoxy composite materials (Boeing). I got the idea from things he had talked about. They made composite materials in all kinds of shapes so I figured a continuous wrap of micarta would probably work. Due to the fact that the micarta is seamless it makes for a very strong handle. There's no scales to pop off and it will probably help prevent any cracks in the wood.

Mac

 

[Biker]

That's a thing of beauty. Well done.

Catastrophic crotch failure. Yup been there, done that, so's Bushcraft Betty on day one here too! Happens to all of us at one time or another, however, it's nice to see the leftovers put to such good use other than as rags.

Gorgeous pattern as has been said before.

 

[Ryecroft]

I had never heard of this as a material, so googled and found this which is quite interesting to anyone who like me, does not know what micarta is:-

http://www.fendleyknives.com/LM105.htm

So thanks for showing and also educating me

 

[TeeDee]

Nice work Pict!
Superb Link as well Ryecroft. Thats a useful wadge of information.

 

[Pict]

Ryecroft,

Thanks for the link, lots of good info there. You've seen micarta on knife handles before I'm sure. We can't buy it here in Brazil so making it is our only option. I've been wanting to make it from old BDU's for a long time. Mac

 

[dancan]

Thanks Pict and Ryecroft , great info from your posts !