Hello All, The genuine looking leather grips on my sais are coming off. Using a bit of electrical tape to keep them together. Any ideas on rewrapping the grips?
How are the originals bound ? Perhaps replacing the original with new leather bonded to the sai it's self. Regards
Take off the old crap that is on there and wrap with 3mm or 4mm polypropolene marine cord. If you leave a loop at one end run the cord down the handle and wrap the cord around the handle and over the piece you ran down the handle. When you get back to the top wherethe loop is make sure you leave the tail of the loop hanging out before you finiish the last few turns around the handle put the end through the loop and pull hard. This should pull the end of the cord under the whipping. You then cut the tail off. It can help to use some double sided tape it holds everything in place better. This I believe is comonly known as 'whipping' in the rope and knot faternaty. So you may well get a far better description which may include pics from the internet somewhere. Or maybe some one has some? Thats the best advice I can give you albeit slightly garbled. Best of luck.
Thanks guys for the posts. The original crap that is on there is someones version of leather, held on with some tape at the end. I like the cord idea....sounds complex. I'll look into it though.
Whipping is shown in the first half of this tutorial http://runningdogknife.homestead.com/cordwrap.html You won't need the notches that he has on the handle as the cord will be held in place by the tangs and pommel of the handle of the sai, this is the method I use to do the handles of the aluminium trainers I make, and it works really well. I also whip cord wrap handles onto my nylon escrima sticks, it gives a really firm grip, Paracord makes a really good long lasting handle, and can be picked up in a huge range of colours in the US, over here in the UK we get Black or Olive Neil
Hi, I usually wrap mine with thin natural rope. It is very comfortable and resistant. That's the way they look like; it's not as pretty as the sport tape, but it's more hand-comfortable and functional. Good luck!
