Steel and Grinds are all very exciting but without a good handle a knife can be as bad as useless.
Khukuri handle sizing is perhaps the most crucial option in this respect and the one most overlooked by other makers.
This page also covers the impacts that different handle materials and hardware materials will will have on the aesthetic, function and care regimen of your blade.
Finally it weighs in on the eternal debate- Rat tail or Full tang?
Traditional Handle Materials
Indian rosewood is a dense, fragrant and oily wood that has a beautiful darker grain that can range from chocolate all the way through to burgundy. It’s these traits in particular that have made rosewood worldwide so sought after and indeed overharvested to the brink of being wiped out.
The rosewood we use is from eastern nepal and is harvested in low quantities within the forests that it has always grown.
As a handle material it’s attractive, hard wearing and shrinks and swells the least out of our traditional materials making it a great value option for blades looking at a long and hard service life.
White rosewood is actually the same species of wood as our Indian Rosewood, but just comes from a different part of the tree. The dark brown wood is the heartwood, while this uniformly cream wood comes from the sapwood on the outside of the tree.
This sapwood isn’t as hard as the darker wood and also requires more frequent oiling as it isn’t as naturally resistant to rot or insect attack. However it is significantly lighter and can look extremely striking when paired with a dark blade or brass fittings.
This wood is a great match for display pieces, martial arts blades or for heavy users who are prepared to give their blades a little more care.
In Nepal cows are holy and sacred animals, prized for their milk and religious significance. The consumption of their meat is illegal and frowned upon, however for the most part the water buffalo replaces the animal both as a beast of burden and as a producer of meat. All of our Buffalo horn is a byproduct of the local meat industry and is a material we’re particularly picky with. It’s colour can range from an intense black through to a dark greyish cream colour, with milky veins being found on some lucky pieces. Horn is our hardest and most impact resistant organic material, being extremely hardy and difficult to crack. At the same time though it’s the least stable in terms of shrinking and swelling in differing humidities and is prone to warping or shrinking over time. In these circumstances it usually remains usable, but it’s best oiled frequently to avoid these issues. When polished it is deep and lustrous though a bit slippery and unwelcoming in hand, however it can be left satin to avoid these issues. It’s a particularly beautiful and interesting material that’s just as home on a display piece as it is on a workhorse blade. It’s exceptionally well suited to rat tail blades as the shrinking issues are lessened due to the construction methods.
Indian rosewood is a dense, fragrant and oily wood that has a beautiful darker grain that can range from chocolate all the way through to burgundy. It’s these traits in particular that have made rosewood worldwide so sought after and indeed overharvested to the brink of being wiped out.
The rosewood we use is from eastern nepal and is harvested in low quantities within the forests that it has always grown.
As a handle material it’s attractive, hard wearing and shrinks and swells the least out of our traditional materials making it a great value option for blades looking at a long and hard service life.
White rosewood is actually the same species of wood as our Indian Rosewood, but just comes from a different part of the tree. The dark brown wood is the heartwood, while this uniformly cream wood comes from the sapwood on the outside of the tree.
This sapwood isn’t as hard as the darker wood and also requires more frequent oiling as it isn’t as naturally resistant to rot or insect attack. However it is significantly lighter and can look extremely striking when paired with a dark blade or brass fittings.
This wood is a great match for display pieces, martial arts blades or for heavy users who are prepared to give their blades a little more care.
In Nepal cows are holy and sacred animals, prized for their milk and religious significance. The consumption of their meat is illegal and frowned upon, however for the most part the water buffalo replaces the animal both as a beast of burden and as a producer of meat. All of our Buffalo horn is a byproduct of the local meat industry and is a material we’re particularly picky with. It’s colour can range from an intense black through to a dark greyish cream colour, with milky veins being found on some lucky pieces. Horn is our hardest and most impact resistant organic material, being extremely hardy and difficult to crack. At the same time though it’s the least stable in terms of shrinking and swelling in differing humidities and is prone to warping or shrinking over time. In these circumstances it usually remains usable, but it’s best oiled frequently to avoid these issues. When polished it is deep and lustrous though a bit slippery and unwelcoming in hand, however it can be left satin to avoid these issues. It’s a particularly beautiful and interesting material that’s just as home on a display piece as it is on a workhorse blade. It’s exceptionally well suited to rat tail blades as the shrinking issues are lessened due to the construction methods.
Modern Handle Materials
Stacked Leather Handles bring comfort, durability and beauty to our traditional Rat Tail tang blades. This handle is composed of a series of tapered buffalo leather and optional washers skewered onto an extra beefy curved tang that are then glued and sandwiched between a metal front and rear bolster. This method manages to maintain the same unique feel in hand and weight distribution of traditional rat tail handles while introducing some massive benefits.
Feel in Hand: Traditional rat tail tangs naturally offer superior shock absorption to full tang blades, but this material enhances that further. The less dense, more fibrous nature of stacked leather can help to absorb the vibrations from chopping slightly. This reduced density can provide a slightly lighter knife overall and an even more lively feel in hand. When left unpolished the externally facing fibres also offer slightly increased grip and breathability over wood (and horn in particular), especially in the wet. For stacked leather only we do a special beeswax finish for polished handles. This produces a beuaitful sheen while maintaining a warm, gently grippy feel in hand. If you are looking to optimise for weight, shock absorption and comfort metal washers are best omitted.
Durability: While the material is softer than wood or horn in terms of vibration absorption it still has a firm and solid feel in hand- and isn’t easily scratched or cut. It has more in common with wood than rubber in this sense. However in other senses it is superior. The way the fibres run horizontally through vertically stacked fibres ensures that cracking under impact or long term warping isn’t a possibility. Furthermore the stable and relaxed state of the material means that it’s less affected by humid or dry environments, both when in use and in terms of long term shrinking or warping over time. As with all our leather items, this handle should avoid being soaked in water for extended periods of time and should be oiled to avoid stop the fibres drying out, shrunking and becoming brittle.
This handle can be specified with or without a handle ring. This handle ring is made from a separate piece of micarta for maximum stability and blends in beautifully. These handles tend to have a timeless kind of feel to them and are a great match on both traditional and modern builds.
Micarta is a handle material so well suited to knives that it’s almost universal and often taken for granted as an option. For those unfamiliar, it’s considered by many to be the holy grail of knife materials. It’s completely waterproof, doesn’t shrink or swell in humid or dry environments and is grippy, wet or dry. It’s easy to clean, difficult to scratch and damn near impossible to break. However throughout the years only a handful of knives have ever been made in Nepal using it. Why is that?
The answer is a bureaucratic one. Foreign materials are slapped with a massive import tax to incentivise local manufacturing within the country, however no local manufacturing or materials have been available to stand in as a replacement. This has made the use of micarta prohibitively expensive, adding almost $100usd to the cost of a blade.
Not content to let this stop us from putting out the best knives we can, we started making our own. As the first micarta manufacturers in Nepal it’s been a challenging process, but it’s given us the ability to produce some really unique handle materials. As the majority of our blades are blades that slash and chop we make our micarta with these applications in mind, with softer resin and coarser fabric than you’ll see elsewhere. The resultant handle has added shock absorption, resistance to cracking and even more grip- closer to Terotuf in many ways. However, also like terotuf our material doesn’t take a high polish and has more muted colours- though a light oiling will kick up the vibrancy. For the massive performance and durability gains we consider this a more than fair tradeoff.
We actually do two very different styles of micarta handle at Kailash.
For Full Tang blades we make our own scales as solid blocks, pin and glue them then shape them predominantly while on the knife. These are very similar to what’s commonly seen in the west and feature the same trademark “topographical” layers which highlight contours well as seen on this Forest Camo Scourge Anniversary handle.
For our Rat Tail tang blades we do a much less common technique called a Micarta Wrap.
We forge out an extra beefy tang and fit our bolsters as usual, but then tightly wrap the tang with many layers of resin soaked fabric strips until the bolsters are firmly packed towards each end and there’s enough bulk for the handle. After this we grind it back down to the perfect shape. In some ways this construction is even stronger than using scales as it’s one single monolithic piece and pins working loose/scales delaminating from the tang isn’t a concern. It also introduces a beautiful organic pattern to the handle. That can be seen below.
It’s a great hard working option that preserves a lot of what makes rat tail blades great.
For colour options we currently have:
Black– Made from sturdy black cotton twill, this is a great hard wearing, understated and practical option. The middle handle in this photo is a black wrap on an mk1. Its colour does not change much with oil or dirtiness and the layer lines/wrap patterning is usually mild.
Desert Camo- Made from multi-coloured arid- toned cotton fabric to help it blend in to warm, earthy, dry environments. The bottom handle in this photo is an unoiled desert camo wrap on a sirupate. It gets a lot darker and browner when oily. Here’s a photo of scales on a small custom full tang mini. Here’s another wrap photo on a pensioner.
Forest Camo- Made from the same exact camouflage fabric used for nepalese army uniforms. Colder and darker browns, greens and beiges. The top handle in this photo is an unoiled forest camo micarta wrap on a pensioner. When oiled it becomes darker and the greens and browns more intense.
Orange- Made of high intensity synthetic orange twill this has a serious pop that makes it harder to lose in the dark or in scrub. This can be seen unoiled on the custom raw full tang bowie 2 blocks up. When oiled the layer lines become less visible and it becomes a more intense, slighlty darker orange. This can be seen below in the “hardware” section. This can get dirtier looking than other handles so the occasional wash and re-oil is ideal for visibility.
We also have some options which are new for 2026:
White: With ivory outlawed and bone quite a fragile material we’ve developed a white micarta for those knives that need a clean, bright handle.
Sometimes it can come across as a little more of a warmer cream colour depending on the lighting. The layer lines can sometimes show up as slightly darker and more saturated tan.
As you might imagine this handle can get very dirty very quickly and will require frequent washing if you want to keep it shiny.
We don’t recommend oiling it as rather than going bright white it darkens to a murky light grey.
Burlap: Hessian, hemp, jute- lots of different words for this material derived from a very famous local plant 😉
This handle material is made out of recycled agricultural feed sacks and is a super interesting option. It is the coarsest fabric that we use by a large margin which gives it some unique properties.
It is the only handle material we have where you can actually see the resin through the fabric, giving it a cloudy oaty depth.
This coarseness gives is even more texture, particularly on the wrapped handle where it is almost stippled and fluffy.
This handle material has the largest difference between the comparatively clear and smooth looking scale and the very chaotic and borderline powdery looking wrap.
They both have a very beautiful, natural and organic vibe to them though and can be oiled to produce a more intense dirty honey colour.
Dhaka: Dhaka is the national fabric of nepal and can be found everywhere in Nepal- be it on the hat of the prime minister, the blouses of local women or the shawls that babies are wrapped in.
What better way to make uniquely nepalese micarta than to use uniquely nepalese fabric?
Dhaka comes in many colours and patterns and for this handle we wanted to choose something that was mostly dark so it doesn’t get dirty but that had bright slashes of colour throughout. When used in a wrap this creates beautiful, rich swirling veins of highly contrasting tertiary navy, teal, crimson and orange.
When used as a scale the pattern changes a lot with the colours instead becoming a very fine series of pricks and short stripes embedded in a sea of dark that gives an almost digital appearance. When oiled it becomes darker than these photos but the colours also become more saturated.
Note the small scale of these two example blades (spur, old 5″ mini) for an idea of how big these patterns will appear on your actual handle.
Chocolate Brown: Last but not least we have chocolate brown. The most common request we have gotten over the years is- “Do you have a micarta colour that looks like rosewood?”
The answer is still no unfortunately but we have stumbled upon this excellent brown that when unoiled has a subdued dull brown tone that looks quite woodlike- especially when paired with the topographic “wood grain” layer lines that appear on handle scales.
Oil it up through and the saturation increases greatly, resulting in this excellent warm and rich chocolatey colour here that could pass as some more exotic hardwoods if you squint.
It’s a little more exciting than black and has a slightly more natural look to it while doing an amazing job of holding up visually even when grimy and dirty.
Siru is always the first to master new techniques and as a result we’re capable of producing custom micarta upon request. We have about 30 additional solid colours to choose from and can do combinations of multiples in various percentages in a wrapped handle. For example this handle is 1:1 black and desert camo. We do not have much control about where the patches land or how big they are- this is luck of the draw and based off handle shaping.
For full tang we can stack alternating colours of various thicknesses or can even chop up strips and press them to make marble rag scales. More than any other custom process from us custom micarta should be approached like an experiment. We do not know what the final handle will look like until it is complete so you cannot know either. If this uncertainty frightens you then go with a standard colour. If not then let’s do something cool together!
Our micarta handles are the most durable handle we offer by a wide margin and are perfectly at home on any blade of ours that is going to be worked HARD no matter how big or small. They perform wonderfully, look cool and have a lot more of a story to them than your usual micarta handles 🙂
Stacked Leather Handles bring comfort, durability and beauty to our traditional Rat Tail tang blades. This handle is composed of a series of tapered buffalo leather and optional washers skewered onto an extra beefy curved tang that are then glued and sandwiched between a metal front and rear bolster. This method manages to maintain the same unique feel in hand and weight distribution of traditional rat tail handles while introducing some massive benefits.
Feel in Hand: Traditional rat tail tangs naturally offer superior shock absorption to full tang blades, but this material enhances that further. The less dense, more fibrous nature of stacked leather can help to absorb the vibrations from chopping slightly. This reduced density can provide a slightly lighter knife overall and an even more lively feel in hand. When left unpolished the externally facing fibres also offer slightly increased grip and breathability over wood (and horn in particular), especially in the wet. For stacked leather only we do a special beeswax finish for polished handles. This produces a beuaitful sheen while maintaining a warm, gently grippy feel in hand. If you are looking to optimise for weight, shock absorption and comfort metal washers are best omitted.
Durability: While the material is softer than wood or horn in terms of vibration absorption it still has a firm and solid feel in hand- and isn’t easily scratched or cut. It has more in common with wood than rubber in this sense. However in other senses it is superior. The way the fibres run horizontally through vertically stacked fibres ensures that cracking under impact or long term warping isn’t a possibility. Furthermore the stable and relaxed state of the material means that it’s less affected by humid or dry environments, both when in use and in terms of long term shrinking or warping over time. As with all our leather items, this handle should avoid being soaked in water for extended periods of time and should be oiled to avoid stop the fibres drying out, shrunking and becoming brittle.
This handle can be specified with or without a handle ring. This handle ring is made from a separate piece of micarta for maximum stability and blends in beautifully. These handles tend to have a timeless kind of feel to them and are a great match on both traditional and modern builds.
Micarta is a handle material so well suited to knives that it’s almost universal and often taken for granted as an option. For those unfamiliar, it’s considered by many to be the holy grail of knife materials. It’s completely waterproof, doesn’t shrink or swell in humid or dry environments and is grippy, wet or dry. It’s easy to clean, difficult to scratch and damn near impossible to break. However throughout the years only a handful of knives have ever been made in Nepal using it. Why is that?
The answer is a bureaucratic one. Foreign materials are slapped with a massive import tax to incentivise local manufacturing within the country, however no local manufacturing or materials have been available to stand in as a replacement. This has made the use of micarta prohibitively expensive, adding almost $100usd to the cost of a blade.
Not content to let this stop us from putting out the best knives we can, we started making our own. As the first micarta manufacturers in Nepal it’s been a challenging process, but it’s given us the ability to produce some really unique handle materials. As the majority of our blades are blades that slash and chop we make our micarta with these applications in mind, with softer resin and coarser fabric than you’ll see elsewhere. The resultant handle has better resistance to cracking and even more grip- closer to Terotuf in many ways. However, also like terotuf our material doesn’t take a high polish and has more muted colours- though a light oiling will kick up the vibrancy. For the massive performance and durability gains we consider this a more than fair tradeoff.
We actually do two very different styles of micarta handle at Kailash.
For Full Tang blades we make our own scales as solid blocks, pin and glue them then shape them predominantly while on the knife. These are very similar to what’s commonly seen in the west and feature the same trademark “topographical” layers which highlight contours well as seen on the above scourge.
For our Rat Tail tang blades we do a much less common technique called a Micarta Wrap. We forge out an extra beefy tang and fit our bolsters as usual, but then tightly wrap the tang with many layers of resin soaked fabric strips until the bolsters are firmly packed towards each end and there’s enough bulk for the handle. After this we grind it back down to the perfect shape. In some ways this construction is even stronger than using scales as it’s one single monolithic piece and pins working loose/scales delaminating from the tang isn’t a concern. It also introduces a beautiful organic pattern to the handle.
For colour options we currently have:
Black– Made from sturdy black cotton twill, this is a great hard wearing, understated and practical option. The middle handle in this photo is a black wrap on an mk1. Its colour does not change much with oil or dirtiness and the layer lines/wrap patterning is usually mild.
Desert Camo- Made from multi-coloured arid- toned cotton fabric to help it blend in to warm, earthy, dry environments. The bottom handle in this photo is an unoiled desert camo wrap on a sirupate. It gets a lot darker and browner when oily. Here’s a photo of scales on a small custom full tang mini. Here’s another wrap photo on a pensioner.
Forest Camo- Made from the same exact camouflage fabric used for nepalese army uniforms. Colder and darker browns, greens and beiges. The top handle in this photo is an unoiled forest camo micarta wrap on a pensioner. When oiled it becomes darker and the greens and browns more intense.
Orange- Made of high intensity synthetic orange twill this has a serious pop that makes it harder to lose in the dark or in scrub. This can be seen unoiled on the custom raw full tang bowie 2 blocks up. When oiled the layer lines become less visible and it becomes a more intense, slighlty darker orange. This can be seen below in the “hardware” section. This can get dirtier looking than other handles so the occasional wash and re-oil is ideal for visibility.
We also have some options which are new for 2026:
White: With ivory outlawed and bone quite a fragile material we’ve developed a white micarta for those knives that need a clean, bright handle.
Sometimes it can come across as a little more of a warmer cream colour depending on the lighting. The layer lines can sometimes show up as slightly darker and more saturated tan.
As you might imagine this handle can get very dirty very quickly and will require frequent washing if you want to keep it shiny.
We don’t recommend oiling it as rather than going bright white it darkens to a murky light grey.
Burlap: Hessian, hemp, jute- lots of different words for this material derived from a very famous local plant 😉
This handle material is made out of recycled agricultural feed sacks and is a super interesting option. It is the coarsest fabric that we use by a large margin which gives it some unique properties.
It is the only handle material we have where you can actually see the resin through the fabric, giving it a cloudy oaty depth.
This coarseness gives is even more texture, particularly on the wrapped handle where it is almost stippled and fluffy.
This handle material has the largest difference between the comparatively clear and smooth looking scale and the very chaotic and borderline powdery looking wrap.
They both have a very beautiful, natural and organic vibe to them though and can be oiled to produce a more intense dirty honey colour.
Dhaka: Dhaka is the national fabric of nepal and can be found everywhere in Nepal- be it on the hat of the prime minister, the blouses of local women or the shawls that babies are wrapped in.
What better way to make uniquely nepalese micarta than to use uniquely nepalese fabric?
Dhaka comes in many colours and patterns and for this handle we wanted to choose something that was mostly dark so it doesn’t get dirty but that had bright slashes of colour throughout. When used in a wrap this creates beautiful, rich swirling veins of highly contrasting tertiary navy, teal, crimson and orange.
When used as a scale the pattern changes a lot with the colours instead becoming a very fine series of pricks and short stripes embedded in a sea of dark that gives an almost digital appearance. When oiled it becomes darker than these photos but the colours also become more saturated.
Note the small scale of these two example blades (spur, old 5″ mini) for an idea of how big these patterns will appear on your actual handle.
Chocolate Brown: Last but not least we have chocolate brown. The most common request we have gotten over the years is- “Do you have a micarta colour that looks like rosewood?”
The answer is still no unfortunately but we have stumbled upon this excellent brown that when unoiled has a subdued dull brown tone that looks quite woodlike- especially when paired with the topographic “wood grain” layer lines that appear on handle scales.
Oil it up through and the saturation increases greatly, resulting in this excellent warm and rich chocolatey colour here that could pass as some more exotic hardwoods if you squint.
It’s a little more exciting than black and has a slightly more natural look to it while doing an amazing job of holding up visually even when grimy and dirty.
Siru is always the first to master new techniques and as a result we’re capable of producing custom micarta upon request. We have about 30 additional solid colours to choose from and can do combinations of multiples in various percentages in a wrapped handle. For example this handle is 1:1 black and desert camo. We do not have much control about where the patches land or how big they are- this is luck of the draw and based off handle shaping.
For full tang we can stack alternating colours of various thicknesses or can even chop up strips and press them to make marble rag scales. More than any other custom process from us custom micarta should be approached like an experiment. We do not know what the final handle will look like until it is complete so you cannot know either. If this uncertainty frightens you then go with a standard colour. If not then let’s do something cool together!
Our micarta handles are the most durable handle we offer by a wide margin and are perfectly at home on any blade of ours that is going to be worked HARD no matter how big or small. They perform wonderfully, look cool and have a lot more of a story to them than your usual micarta handles 🙂
Hardware Options
Hardware options determine which metal we use for any bolsters, pins, buttcaps or spacers on your knife. While some of these metals are less tough than others we compensate for this by using thicker sheet in those instances- all of our fittings are tough enough for proper outdoors use. As a result the key differences are in style and how the blade will age over time- a great opportunity to make your khukuri uniquely yours.
Steel is the toughest hardware option we offer and the most resistance to impacts and scratches. It requires similar care to the blade itself tomaintain a finish, but can also patina to match the blade over time. Its colour can range from mirror silver, a bright, light grey (shown here) through to a dull/dark grey depending on if it’s polished, satin or acid washed. Currently we use aluminium instead of steel pins here to save unnecessary weight- if you’d like steel instead just let us know in the order notes.
Brass is the next strongest and has a big advantage in terms of rust and corrosion. It won’t corrode aggressively but will gain a patina over time. It’s quite a bit lighter than steel, whcih is particularly significant on blades with plate metal bolsters like the regent khukuri. Its colour can range from a golden mirror through to a bright, light yellow (shown here) or even a bolder less reflective gold depending on if it’s polished, satin or acid washed.
Copper is very similar in weight, strength and corrosion resistance as brass but is slightly easier to scratch. The key difference is that copper has a more delicate, warmer tone that can really help make a blade look classy. The colour difference is most notable with the less reflective finishes such as satin and acid wash, and more subtle when polished. It’s shown here alongside black micarta with a plate metal front bolster. It also has a wider range of possible patina colours including black, pink or even cyan given certain conditions.
If having a beautifully polished blade is a priority for you then White Metal is a choice worth looking into. It takes a brilliant mirror polish and is very slow to dull. With this said it’s our softest hardware and can scratch easily in use. While it is tough enough for outdoors use it makes the most sense on display and martial blades. It’s shown here on a stacked leather handle- note the polished white metal spacers to match the buttcap and bolster. While the name might sound vague, white metal is a term used for a family of ornamental alloys used in jewellery and silverware. More info to be found here.
Steel is the toughest hardware option we offer and the most resistance to impacts and scratches. It requires similar care to the blade itself tomaintain a finish, but can also patina to match the blade over time. Its colour can range from mirror silver, a bright, light grey (shown here) through to a dull/dark grey depending on if it’s polished, satin or acid washed. Currently we use aluminium instead of steel pins here to save unnecessary weight- if you’d like steel instead just let us know in the order notes.
Brass is the next strongest and has a big advantage in terms of rust and corrosion. It won’t corrode aggressively but will gain a patina over time. It’s quite a bit lighter than steel, whcih is particularly significant on blades with plate metal bolsters like the regent khukuri. Its colour can range from a golden mirror through to a bright, light yellow (shown here) or even a bolder less reflective gold depending on if it’s polished, satin or acid washed.
Copper is very similar in weight, strength and corrosion resistance as brass but is slightly easier to scratch. The key difference is that copper has a more delicate, warmer tone that can really help make a blade look classy. The colour difference is most notable with the less reflective finishes such as satin and acid wash, and more subtle when polished. It’s shown here alongside black micarta with a plate metal front bolster. It also has a wider range of possible patina colours including black, pink or even cyan given certain conditions.
If having a beautifully polished blade is a priority for you then White Metal is a choice worth looking into. It takes a brilliant mirror polish and is very slow to dull. With this said it’s our softest hardware and can scratch easily in use. While it is tough enough for outdoors use it makes the most sense on display and martial blades. It’s shown here on a stacked leather handle- note the polished white metal spacers to match the buttcap and bolster. While the name might sound vague, white metal is a term used for a family of ornamental alloys used in jewellery and silverware. More info to be found here.
Full Tang vs Rat Tail?
To put it bluntly, Rat Tail tangs have a bad reputation. In the west they’ve been associated with cost cutting methods and cheap blades during the 20th century. These handles had a habit of snapping under heavy use, however this had more to do with the frankly lazy and reckless way those specific cheap tangs were made, rather than an issue inherent to the construction method.
These perceptions persist though and many are of the opinion that full tangs are the ONLY durable handle option and rat tails are always objectively WRONG choice. This couldn’t be further from the truth. This handle construction method has remained popular in so many parts of the world for very good reason.
These handles have a big weight advantage over full tang handles, not only reducing overall weight but keeping the POB far forward for more chopping power per inch/gram. They also insulate the hand from metal in cold weather as well as some of the shock from heavy chopping impacts.
All our Rat Tail tangs are nice and wide where they first enter the handle, with rounded shoulders to avoid stress raisers. The tang is also annealed and tapers gradually down towards the rear of the blade to both disperse stresses more evenly while saving weight. The rat tail runs the full length of the handle and is peened down against the handle material to keep the construction in constant tension while also being held together with epoxy. On many cheap western rat tail tang blades rubber/kraton or injection molded plastic is used for the handle materials. These are not structural- this means that the handle material is not taking any load and the tang is doing all the work. Rosewood, buffalo horn and micarta are all structual handle materials and share the load from work along with the tang. Stacked leather is not structural but we give it a wider tang that is closer to a full tang to compensate. With this more considered construction these handles have proven completely dependable for any & all chopping tasks over our decade of operations.
But what are their limits? In one handed use a khukuri is brought up to speed and then almost “thrown” into the wood with a very relaxed grip. This means that there isn’t much load on the tang transition in normal chopping. In two handed usage though the handle is “driven” into/through the wood and this can produce significant strain at the tang transition when chopping. For this reason we do not offer any two handed rat tail tang handles on chopping blades. 2 handed rat tail Chitlanges are martial blades and are not covered by warranty for wood chopping.
The tang transition can also be placed under a lot of stress when the handle is struck during batoning or under prying or levering from the handle. This does not just apply to lifting or cracking open logs. It is important to note that if you embed your khukuri into wood very deeply and it binds badly enough that you need to take a branch and lever or hammer on the handle to loosen it you are endangering your rat tail tang. This kind of levering and prying tasks is not covered under warranty for rat tail blades. You can still pry & lever with rat tail blades but should hold the knife at the ricasso rather than the handle to isolate the tang transition. If you need to pry or lever any more than that then a full tang is essential & a Cho Delete is recommended for maximum durability and warranty cover- check the Deeper Customisations section on our “Blade Options and Finishes” page for more info on this. Without a cho delete the durability and warranty gap between rat tail and full tang is not as large as you might initially imagine- a testament to the dependability of this handle construction.
Full tang blades are a relatively new development as far as khukuris go, coming to prominence in the early 20th century on military blades. However the handle technique has since been used on a number of standard military issue khukuris and they have a fair pedigree with the gurkhas.
Full tang handles feature a tang that is the full width of the handle, with two slabs of handle material glued and riveted on for maximum strength and durability. These handles rose to popularity in the west as a response to the poor quality rat tail blades produced there during the 20th century, though the style has been in use internationally for centuries.
While full tang handles do provide a more bulletproof form of handle construction, they also add weight to a blade. Our full tang handles are tapered to disperse stresses and drilled out to save weight to minimise this downside, but they’re still ~100g heavier than our rat tail handles and offer a different feel in hand as a result. Some users find that this counterweight helps to tame large, thick or broad blades while others find it meddles with the classic balance they’ve come to love from khukuris both in woods use and martial arts. Full tang is an extremely common alteration and is available as an option on all non-socket blades, either by default, as a standard option or in the deeper customisation dropdown.
The most common question is- will a full tang ruin my khukuris handling? It’s not an easy question to answer. The heavier and longer a blade is the less it dynamic balance is impacted by a full tang.
All but the lightest and fastest blades of longer than 15″ (chitlange, mutiny, salyani) will likely benefit from the slightly reduced POB that comes with full tang, though if you want the choppiest chopper rat tail reigns supreme.
For blades of moderate 12-15″ length it’s a grey area. Lighter and shorter blades (mutiny, chitlange, 12″ sirupate, pensioner) will see a larger impact on their POB. Heavier and longer blades (Falo, MSI, Tin Chirra, mk1, 14″ sirupate) will be much more tolerant of the change. Maybe you want the reduced POB here or just want the beatability of full tang. Maybe you want maximum chopping power and lower weight. A lot of it here depends on your own desires in the final blade.
For blades of 12″ and under there will be significant impacts both to the overall weight of the blade & to the POB in particular, especially if you also have micarta as the handle material. For all but the heaviest of these blades (Tin chirra, 9″/11″ gainda) you should really weigh up how important this prying and levering utility is vs the dynamic balance of the blade.
For maximum prying and levering capability and warranty cover consider a Cho Delete– info on it can be found in our “Blade Options and Finishes” page.
If you’re adding your Full Tang through the Deeper Customisation section it can be ordered without a buttcap to trim a bit of the handle weight added by full tang particularly if micarta is the handle material. It is tough enough to shrug off drops onto hard surfaces. Horn and wood are put at greater risk from the removal of a buttcap. It’s also possible through semi custom processes for us to add additional spine thickness and weight to the front of the blade to counteract the balance impacts of a full tang on a shorter or lighter blade. You’ll get a similar POB to rat tail but then the added weight of both the Full Tang AND the extra blade beef- wouldn’t a lighter handle make more sense to start with?
Counterintuitively as blades get very short they are not expected to chop at all generally and their dynamic balance becomes somewhat irrelevant. Tang choice on the Baak, Bhura and 5″/7″ mini then boils down to how much the user prioritises beatability, overall weight, insulation from vibration/cold and aesthetics.
Our final tang option is something new that we have developed called a Captive Tang.
This idea is directly inspired by the hidden tangs seen on many villager khukuris today and the majority of khukuris before the turn of the 20th century.
These horn or rosewood handles featured at times very short 1.5″-2.5″ tangs that were burnt into a perfect cavity and then glued in place with Laha (pine tar resin).
In this construction the handle is being relied upon at the structural material not the tang- the tang is just the means of connecting the blade to the handle. Think of an axe- it has no tang and the handle is relied on to take 100% of the load.
The advantage of such a hidden tang handle is that the handles have no buttcap and are missing more than half of their tang making them very lightweight.
All of this weight is removed from the rear of the handle which pushes the point of balance forwards. These handles help these older blades chop very deeply or be made very narrow or short without losing too much chopping power.
The issue with these hidden tang handles though is the failure mode. If the handle/resin cracks and loosens its grip on the tang slightly your blade suddenly has zero handle whatsoever.
In 19th century nepal or nepali villages this is not the end of the world- your local smith or even yourself can reset your blade with resin or carve a new handle cheaply and quickly.
For those not living in Nepal though this is basically completely unrepairable and this is why we only offer the antique style of hidden tang handles by custom request.
Our new Captive Tangs avoid the drawbacks of hidden tang handles through taking advantage of the unique capabilites of micarta.
Our captive tangs are half the length of the handle and feature a specially shaped or “keyed” tang that the fabric and resin is wrapped around. Once this micarta sets it is rock solid and has set in place around this keyed tang- locking it in place permanently within absolutely bombproof micarta.
This kind of construction is used in carbon-fibre composite manufacturing in high stress environments like spokes on racing bikes.
While heavier than these antique wooden hidden tangs a captive tang gives a micarta handle’s grip and durability benefits at the weight of a rat tail wooden handle. This is particularly relevant on shorter and lighter blades that need all the power they can get. While this handle construction received an identical warranty treatment to rat tail, in some ways this construction is more durable than a rat tail tang. Peened buttcaps can come loose with shock and can rust can form at the exposed tang. Captive tangs simply have less on them that can go wrong. If you’re having any concerns about the durability of this handle construction, Test blades have seen use chopping hardwood in the deserts of Kenya, the arctic Taiga of Lapland and the tropical heat of the Amazon since 2022 with zero hiccups.
To put it bluntly, Rat Tail tangs have a bad reputation. In the west they’ve been associated with cost cutting methods and cheap blades during the 20th century. These handles had a habit of snapping under heavy use, however this had more to do with the frankly lazy and reckless way those specific cheap tangs were made, rather than an issue inherent to the construction method.
These perceptions persist though and many are of the opinion that full tangs are the ONLY durable handle option and rat tails are always objectively WRONG choice. This couldn’t be further from the truth. This handle construction method has remained popular in so many parts of the world for very good reason.
These handles have a big weight advantage over full tang handles, not only reducing overall weight but keeping the POB far forward for more chopping power per inch/gram. They also insulate the hand from metal in cold weather as well as some of the shock from heavy chopping impacts.
All our Rat Tail tangs are nice and wide where they first enter the handle, with rounded shoulders to avoid stress raisers. The tang is also annealed and tapers gradually down towards the rear of the blade to both disperse stresses more evenly while saving weight. The rat tail runs the full length of the handle and is peened down against the handle material to keep the construction in constant tension while also being held together with epoxy. On many cheap western rat tail tang blades rubber/kraton or injection molded plastic is used for the handle materials. These are not structural- this means that the handle material is not taking any load and the tang is doing all the work. Rosewood, buffalo horn and micarta are all structual handle materials and share the load from work along with the tang. Stacked leather is not structural but we give it a wider tang that is closer to a full tang to compensate. With this more considered construction these handles have proven completely dependable for any & all chopping tasks over our decade of operations.
But what are their limits? In one handed use a khukuri is brought up to speed and then almost “thrown” into the wood with a very relaxed grip. This means that there isn’t much load on the tang transition in normal chopping. In two handed usage though the handle is “driven” into/through the wood and this can produce significant strain at the tang transition when chopping. For this reason we do not offer any two handed rat tail tang handles on chopping blades. 2 handed rat tail Chitlanges are martial blades and are not covered by warranty for wood chopping.
The tang transition can also be placed under a lot of stress when the handle is struck during batoning or under prying or levering from the handle. This does not just apply to lifting or cracking open logs. It is important to note that if you embed your khukuri into wood very deeply and it binds badly enough that you need to take a branch and lever or hammer on the handle to loosen it you are endangering your rat tail tang. This kind of levering and prying tasks is not covered under warranty for rat tail blades. You can still pry & lever with rat tail blades but should hold the knife at the ricasso rather than the handle to isolate the tang transition. If you need to pry or lever any more than that then a full tang is essential & a Cho Delete is recommended for maximum durability and warranty cover- check the Deeper Customisations section on our “Blade Options and Finishes” page for more info on this. Without a cho delete the durability and warranty gap between rat tail and full tang is not as large as you might initially imagine- a testament to the dependability of this handle construction.
Full tang blades are a relatively new development as far as khukuris go, coming to prominence in the early 20th century on military blades. However the handle technique has since been used on a number of standard military issue khukuris and they have a fair pedigree with the gurkhas.
Full tang handles feature a tang that is the full width of the handle, with two slabs of handle material glued and riveted on for maximum strength and durability. These handles rose to popularity in the west as a response to the poor quality rat tail blades produced there during the 20th century, though the style has been in use internationally for centuries.
While full tang handles do provide a more bulletproof form of handle construction, they also add weight to a blade. Our full tang handles are tapered to disperse stresses and drilled out to save weight to minimise this downside, but they’re still ~100g heavier than our rat tail handles and offer a different feel in hand as a result. Some users find that this counterweight helps to tame large, thick or broad blades while others find it meddles with the classic balance they’ve come to love from khukuris both in woods use and martial arts. Full tang is an extremely common alteration and is available as an option on all non-socket blades, either by default, as a standard option or in the deeper customisation dropdown.
The most common question is- will a full tang ruin my khukuris handling? It’s not an easy question to answer. The heavier and longer a blade is the less it dynamic balance is impacted by a full tang.
All but the lightest and fastest blades of longer than 15″ (chitlange, mutiny, salyani) will likely benefit from the slightly reduced POB that comes with full tang, though if you want the choppiest chopper rat tail reigns supreme.
For blades of moderate 12-15″ length it’s a grey area. Lighter and shorter blades (mutiny, chitlange, 12″ sirupate, pensioner) will see a larger impact on their POB. Heavier and longer blades (Falo, MSI, Tin Chirra, mk1, 14″ sirupate) will be much more tolerant of the change. Maybe you want the reduced POB here or just want the beatability of full tang. Maybe you want maximum chopping power and lower weight. A lot of it here depends on your own desires in the final blade.
For blades of 12″ and under there will be significant impacts both to the overall weight of the blade & to the POB in particular, especially if you also have micarta as the handle material. For all but the heaviest of these blades (Tin chirra, 9″/11″ gainda) you should really weigh up how important this prying and levering utility is vs the dynamic balance of the blade.
For maximum prying and levering capability and warranty cover consider a Cho Delete– info on it can be found in our “Blade Options and Finishes” page.
If you’re adding your Full Tang through the Deeper Customisation section it can be ordered without a buttcap to trim a bit of the handle weight added by full tang particularly if micarta is the handle material. It is tough enough to shrug off drops onto hard surfaces. Horn and wood are put at greater risk from the removal of a buttcap. It’s also possible through semi custom processes for us to add additional spine thickness and weight to the front of the blade to counteract the balance impacts of a full tang on a shorter or lighter blade. You’ll get a similar POB to rat tail but then the added weight of both the Full Tang AND the extra blade beef- wouldn’t a lighter handle make more sense to start with?
Counterintuitively as blades get very short they are not expected to chop at all generally and their dynamic balance becomes somewhat irrelevant. Tang choice on the Baak, Bhura and 5″/7″ mini then boils down to how much the user prioritises beatability, overall weight, insulation from vibration/cold and aesthetics.
Our final tang option is something new that we have developed called a Captive Tang.
This idea is directly inspired by the hidden tangs seen on many villager khukuris today and the majority of khukuris before the turn of the 20th century. These horn or rosewood handles featured at times very short 1.5″-2.5″ tangs that were burnt into a perfect cavity and then glued in place with Laha (pine tar resin). In this construction the handle is being relied upon at the structural material not the tang- the tang is just the means of connecting the blade to the handle. Think of an axe- it has no tang and the handle is relied on to take 100% of the load.
The advantage of such a hidden tang handle is that the handles have no buttcap and are missing more than half of their tang making them very lightweight.
All of this weight is removed from the rear of the handle which pushes the point of balance forwards. These handles help these older blades chop very deeply or be made very narrow or short without losing too much chopping power.
The issue with these hidden tang handles though is the failure mode. If the handle/resin cracks and loosens its grip on the tang slightly your blade suddenly has zero handle whatsoever. In 19th century nepal or nepali villages this is not the end of the world- your local smith or even yourself can reset your blade with resin or carve a new handle cheaply and quickly.
For those not living in Nepal though this is basically completely unrepairable and this is why we only offer the antique style of hidden tang handles by custom request.
Our new Captive Tangs avoid the drawbacks of hidden tang handles through taking advantage of the unique capabilites of micarta.
Our captive tangs are half the length of the handle and feature a specially shaped or “keyed” tang that the fabric and resin is wrapped around. Once this micarta sets it is rock solid and has set in place around this keyed tang- locking it in place permanently within absolutely bombproof micarta.
This kind of construction is used in carbon-fibre composite manufacturing in high stress environments like spokes on racing bikes.
While heavier than these antique wooden hidden tangs a captive tang gives a micarta handle’s grip and durability benefits at the weight of a rat tail wooden handle. This is particularly relevant on shorter and lighter blades that need all the power they can get. While this handle construction received an identical warranty treatment to rat tail, in some ways this construction is more durable than a rat tail tang. Peened buttcaps can come loose with shock and can rust can form at the exposed tang. Captive tangs simply have less on them that can go wrong. If you’re having any concerns about the durability of this handle construction, Test blades have seen use chopping hardwood in the deserts of Kenya, the arctic Taiga of Lapland and the tropical heat of the Amazon since 2022 with zero hiccups.
Customisable Handle Lengths
We measure our handles from the centre of the front of the bolster to the centre of the pommel flare ridge, so the sizes can sometimes seem quite large compared to knives that measure the grip length only. We offer three different handle lengths as default sizes, as well as longer handles on some historical and two handed blades. This option only controls the length of the handle. The thickness and height of the handle is determined by the blade profile- A large mini will still fill the hand less than a Small MK1. To size your handle we use a measurement called Width Across Fingers (WAF). You can see how to measure that Here.
WAF is an improvement over our pre 2026 sizing reference that used palm width as its main measurement. Fingers interact with the most constrained parts of our handles and so are the more crucial area. WAF also more accurately reflects the changes brought by gloves or meatier hands than palm width does.
If you are right at the edge of the WAF range for a handle length then we recommend sizing up unless you have previous hands-on experience with handles from Kailash or are confident in your preference for snug fitting handles.
If you plan on primarily using your blade with gloves then it is important to measure your WAF while wearing those specific gloves.
When taking these gloved measurements squeeze the excess material on either side of the glove in to mimic the compression they will receive against the pommel flare of a knife handle. If you fail to do this you may overestimate the funcitonal width of your gloved fingers considerably.
As gloves get thicker they also tend to distribute the pressure from the pommel flare and handle rings to reduce the risk of hotspots.
As a result you should feel confident going all the way up to the end of the measured size range for gloved WAFs.
Our Small handles measure 4.25″ from the centre of the front of the bolster to the centre of the pommel flare ridge. It is best thought of as a good fit on moderately small bare hands or or small hands with gloves. Hands with a WAF any wider than 3.25″ should go a size up as it may put excess pressure at the flare or incorrectly line up with any grip rings.
With this said, many customers may choose to spec this who are coming to khukuris from a historical or collecting perspective regardless of their own WAF. This is because many antique blades were made with quite small handles and it produces a blade that is more accurate in terms of visual proportions as well as balance. Such handles can be fine for light drills and short sessions of use, however for those planning on using their khukuris hard and for longer sessions we recommend sticking to a handle size that fits your WAF.
Our Medium handles measure 4.75″ from the centre of the front of the bolster to the centre of the pommel flare ridge. This is best thought of as a good fit on medium to largish bare hands, medium hands with normal gloves or even some small hands with very thick gloves. Understandably this is our most common sizing. Hands with a WAF any wider than 3.75″ should go a size up as it may put excess pressure at the flare or incorrectly line up with any grip rings.
Our Large handles measure 5.25″ from the centre of the front of the bolster to the centre of the pommel flare ridge. This is best thought of as a good fit for properly big hands or medium hands with gloves.
Hands with a WAF of less than 3.2″ can also fit this handle well. This is because they have enough space to slip the handle ring through their index & middle finger with 3 fingers between the pommel flare and handle ring for greater leverage when chopping. Similarly they can slip the handle ring through their ring & middle or ring & pinky for better control when carving. Unless you can fit a 3rd finger behind the handle ring you should not size up. Whether this is worth the weight and balance tradeoff is up to the customer’s discretion.
This is also a good time to mention our semi-custom capabilities. Looking for a handle that is just the right amount of snug? Have a medium or larger hand but want to use a 3 finger grip? Need an XS (Sub 2.75″ WAF) or XL handle (Over 4.25″ WAF). We can do this for you- just pop it in your order notes on checkout or use the semi custom enquiry option on our contact form for guidance 🙂
Maybe you have a bad track record of khukuri handles being too thick/too skinny for you to grab properly? Send us an email through the Semi Custom Enquiry option and we can advise on how best to achieve it as well as give you a table to fill out with your desired dimensions 🙂
WAF is an improvement over our pre 2026 sizing reference that used palm width as its main measurement. Fingers interact with the most constrained parts of our handles and so are the more crucial area. WAF also more accurately reflects the changes brought by gloves or meatier hands than palm width does..
If you are right at the edge of the WAF range for a handle length then we recommend sizing up unless you have previous hands-on experience with handles from Kailash or are confident in your preference for snug fitting handles.
If you plan on primarily using your blade with gloves then it is important to measure your WAF while wearing those specific gloves.
When taking these gloved measurements squeeze the excess material on either side of the glove in to mimic the compression they will receive against the pommel flare of a knife handle. If you fail to do this you may overestimate the funcitonal width of your gloved fingers considerably.
As gloves get thicker they also tend to distribute the pressure from the pommel flare and handle rings to reduce the risk of hotspots.
As a result you should feel confident going all the way up to the end of the measured size range for gloved WAFs.
Our Small handles measure 4.25″ from the centre of the front of the bolster to the centre of the pommel flare ridge. It is best thought of as a good fit on moderately small bare hands or or small hands with gloves. Hands with a WAF any wider than 3.25″ should go a size up as it may put excess pressure at the flare or incorrectly line up with any grip rings.
With this said, many customers may choose to spec this who are coming to khukuris from a historical or collecting perspective regardless of their own WAF. This is because many antique blades were made with quite small handles and it produces a blade that is more accurate in terms of visual proportions as well as balance. Such handles can be fine for light drills and short sessions of use, however for those planning on using their khukuris hard and for longer sessions we recommend sticking to a handle size that fits your WAF.
Our Medium handles measure 4.75″ from the centre of the front of the bolster to the centre of the pommel flare ridge. This is best thought of as a good fit on medium to largish bare hands, medium hands with normal gloves or even some small hands with very thick gloves. Understandably this is our most common sizing. Hands with a WAF any wider than 3.75″ should go a size up as it may put excess pressure at the flare or incorrectly line up with any grip rings.
Our Large handles measure 5.25″ from the centre of the front of the bolster to the centre of the pommel flare ridge. This is best thought of as a good fit for properly big hands or medium hands with gloves.
Hands with a WAF of less than 3.2″ can also fit this handle well. This is because they have enough space to slip the handle ring through their index & middle finger with 3 fingers between the pommel flare and handle ring for greater leverage when chopping. Similarly they can slip the handle ring through their ring & middle or ring & pinky for better control when carving. Unless you can fit a 3rd finger behind the handle ring you should not size up. Whether this is worth the weight and balance tradeoff is up to the customer’s discretion.
This is also a good time to mention our semi-custom capabilities. Looking for a handle that is just the right amount of snug? Have a medium or larger hand but want to use a 3 finger grip? Need an XS (Sub 2.75″ WAF) or XL handle (Over 4.25″ WAF). We can do this for you- just pop it in your order notes on checkout or use the semi custom enquiry option on our contact form for guidance 🙂
Maybe you have a bad track record of khukuri handles being too thick/too skinny for you to grab properly? Send us an email through the Semi Custom Enquiry option and we can advise on how best to achieve it as well as give you a table to fill out with your desired dimensions 🙂
The following options can be found in the Deeper Customisation dropdown. These options are tucked away due to being significant deviations to either the intended balance, aesthetic, historicity or function of that specific model. This doesn’t mean they’re bad ideas- they might be awesome for your knife. They simply add a level of complexity to the decision making process that we think could overload many customers.
If you’re already feeling information overload and decision paralysis then don’t even worry about this section- focus on the basics 🙂
Perhaps the most common of these is the addition of a small front guard to a traditionally constructed blade. Any khukuri veteran will tell you “you don’t need a guard to stop you from sliding onto the edge, that’s what the handle ring is for”. In many cases even without a handle ring some traditional blades have front bolsters that flare widely enough to hamper forwards movement of the hand (a falo, for example). A comparison could be made to an axe also- when you swing the handle wants to slip out and away from the body, not in towards making a guard less useful. Finally there’s the question of handle weight. Guards (generally) add a chunk of weight to the handle and this both increases overall weight and brings the POB back towards the handle for a worse chopping balance. Clearly they have no place on a khukuri!
These views can often verge on being puritanical though. There are lots of reasons someone might want a guard on such a blade. Maybe they’ve had bad experiences with handle rings in the past. Even when they’re placed correctly for your hand (uncommon from most makers) some people still encounter hotspots and chafing. Many bolsters are not tall enough to retain the hand without some additional retention. If you envision yourself doing a lot of carving or sawing your way through ropes then a guard makes a lot of sense particularly with a Full Length Edge as on the Bhura pictured here. If you envision yourself doing a lot of thrusting in martial arts applications or needing to protect the hand from incoming blades then a guard makes a lot of sense.
On traditional handles that are being used strictly for traditional applications then a handle ring is likely optimal. However today khukuris are being pressed into a broader range of applications than they ever have and sometimes adaptations like guards ban help the blade flourish in these situations. Our Loveless Style Guard is hand filed to shape from plate metal to match your initial hardware choice. It’s designed to strike a balance between comfort, protection and weight while remaining elegant and as visually unobtrusive as possible so it can fit on as many different blades as possible. For an even lighter guard that impacts balance as minimally as possible we can use micarta as seen on our windfall– email us to organise.
A big advantage of a front guard is that it stops your hand from sliding forward while allowing you to adjust your grip forwards and backwards as needed. If a blade has a guard traditional handle rings are not needed to stop the hand sliding onto the edge and they also pin the hand in place and eliminate this adjustability. To ensure maximum functionality we remove any traditional handle rings from the handle as part of selecting the loveless guard option. On blades with loveless guards specified you should feel free to size up your handle if more grip adjustment is desired.
Lanyards are a useful thing to have on a lot of knives. When wrapped around your wrist they help stop you from losing your knife if you drop it. When wrapped around your hand they can be tightened up to firmly press your palm against the handle. This can help you perform hard tasks like chopping or intense carving with less strain and get more power down. Finally when wrapped around a branch or nail they offer a convenient way to hang your knife saving space and keeping them visible and easily located.
On large chopping knives they’re a little more complicated though. Here you’re swinging a blade with a large amount of force. If you’re not using a lanyard and lose your grip the blade shoots forward and down away from you. If that happens while the blade is connected to your hand with a lanyard it can potentially swing down and back towards you injuring you quite badly. On larger blades we prefer to try and provide adequate retention in the handle shaping itself so you don’t need a lanyard. We recognise that some people love them though and so do have them as standard on some of our modern blades. They’re also selectable on all non socket/cursive handles through the deeper customisation section. For tubes that are added through the Deeper customisation section we will ship with a lanyard pre-tied.
Here is a video showing what we think is the best and safest way to use them as well as how to tie them to any blade– even if your handle doesn’t have a lanyard tube!
Our lanyard tubes are a seamless tube that will match the hardware of your blade. They are 6mm diameter and we gently round the inner corners to avoid wear on your cord. On all rat tail blades and on specific full tang blades that have wide enough pommels we will place these lanyard tubes near the upper rearmost corner of the handle where they interfere with grip the least. On full tang blades that do not have enough space the lanyard tube will replace the rearmost pin. This is to avoid weakening the handle material.
Perhaps the most common of these is the addition of a small front guard to a traditionally constructed blade. Any khukuri veteran will tell you “you don’t need a guard to stop you from sliding onto the edge, that’s what the handle ring is for”. In many cases even without a handle ring some traditional blades have front bolsters that flare widely enough to hamper forwards movement of the hand (a falo, for example). A comparison could be made to an axe also- when you swing the handle wants to slip out and away from the body, not in towards making a guard less useful. Finally there’s the question of handle weight. Guards (generally) add a chunk of weight to the handle and this both increases overall weight and brings the POB back towards the handle for a worse chopping balance. Clearly they have no place on a khukuri!
These views can often verge on being puritanical though. There are lots of reasons someone might want a guard on such a blade. Maybe they’ve had bad experiences with handle rings in the past. Even when they’re placed correctly for your hand (uncommon from most makers) some people still encounter hotspots and chafing. Many bolsters are not tall enough to retain the hand without some additional retention. If you envision yourself doing a lot of carving or sawing your way through ropes then a guard makes a lot of sense particularly with a Full Length Edge as on the Bhura pictured here. If you envision yourself doing a lot of thrusting in martial arts applications or needing to protect the hand from incoming blades then a guard makes a lot of sense.
On traditional handles that are being used strictly for traditional applications then a handle ring is likely optimal. However today khukuris are being pressed into a broader range of applications than they ever have and sometimes adaptations like guards ban help the blade flourish in these situations. Our Loveless Style Guard is hand filed to shape from plate metal to match your initial hardware choice. It’s designed to strike a balance between comfort, protection and weight while remaining elegant and as visually unobtrusive as possible so it can fit on as many different blades as possible. For an even lighter guard that impacts balance as minimally as possible we can use micarta as seen on our windfall– email us to organise.
A big advantage of a front guard is that it stops your hand from sliding forward while allowing you to adjust your grip forwards and backwards as needed. If a blade has a guard traditional handle rings are not needed to stop the hand sliding onto the edge and they also pin the hand in place and eliminate this adjustability. To ensure maximum functionality we remove any traditional handle rings from the handle as part of selecting the loveless guard option. On blades with loveless guards specified you should feel free to size up your handle if more grip adjustment is desired.
Lanyards are a useful thing to have on a lot of knives. When wrapped around your wrist they help stop you from losing your knife if you drop it. When wrapped around your hand they can be tightened up to firmly press your palm against the handle. This can help you perform hard tasks like chopping or intense carving with less strain and get more power down. Finally when wrapped around a branch or nail they offer a convenient way to hang your knife saving space and keeping them visible and easily located.
On large chopping knives they’re a little more complicated though. Here you’re swinging a blade with a large amount of force. If you’re not using a lanyard and lose your grip the blade shoots forward and down away from you. If that happens while the blade is connected to your hand with a lanyard it can potentially swing down and back towards you injuring you quite badly. On larger blades we prefer to try and provide adequate retention in the handle shaping itself so you don’t need a lanyard. We recognise that some people love them though and so do have them as standard on some of our modern blades. They’re also selectable on all non socket/cursive handles through the deeper customisation section. For tubes that are added through the Deeper customisation section we will ship with a lanyard pre-tied.
Here is a video showing what we think is the best and safest way to use them as well as how to tie them to any blade– even if your handle doesn’t have a lanyard tube!
Our lanyard tubes are a seamless tube that will match the hardware of your blade. They are 6mm diameter and we gently round the inner corners to avoid wear on your cord. On all rat tail blades and on specific full tang blades that have wide enough pommels we will place these lanyard tubes near the upper rearmost corner of the handle where they interfere with grip the least. On full tang blades that do not have enough space the lanyard tube will replace the rearmost pin. This is to avoid weakening the handle material.