Restoring an Atlanta Cutlery Longleaf Khukuri Blade.

DarthTaco123

DarthTaco123

Joined
Mar 28, 2013
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She's here, she's here! Think it may be a bhojpure, not a longleaf. Runs at about 17" unless I'm measuring it wrong. Might bring it up to them, might not. This monster is 1/2" thick with a 3" belly though so I'm not complaining. The tang runs just long enough for me to squeak a nearly full tang handle and it came with not one, but TWO sets of negari script, not sure if that's normal or not. The blade came in good shape since I didn't hand select, the spine has contact marks and the edge is dull but it's to be expected. Anyways I'll just shut up.

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This script is near where the blade drops:
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And this is near the tang.
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The materials so far:

One 8" copper tube (to be sliced, diced, and hammered into a bolster).

Various epoxies for handle securing, natural pine epoxy included, with authentic altoid can.

One: large forest full of trees for a handle! I have some maple and poplar chopped up already, one of those will become said handle, using poplar for the scabbard.

One: ye olde Longleaf khukuri blade (arrives Tuesday).

Hammers, files, rasps, that stuff. Handles don't make themselves now do they?

WD40 and a SOS pad for crud decrudding!

Missing anything?
 
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Did you get blade only? Might be able to use the old bolster if it has one? Sounds like a fun project:thumbup:
 
Just bought the blade, not sure if it comes with a bolster but I'll go for a simple one like what's on the handled khuk. Got UPS one day but I have no idea when it'll geg here. Can't wait.
 
aaaagh making me want to buy more of these!!! they really are a steal even now
 
I guess it depends on how you plan to make the bolster - most I have seen are relatively thin sheet metal. I would mock up some kind of mandrel to bend and hammer it around. Most I have seen are brazed on by the looks of it. I've seen both brass and silver brazing. I'm often pulling them off so I have to heat that area and yank with vise grips. I haven't thought a lot about making one.

Hmmm.... if I were you, I'd weld, braze or even screw on an extension on to the existing partial/short tang to better secure it. I am not a fan of partial tangs on big blades - they just don't provide enough support to dissipate forces and the handle breaks as a result when chopping/hacking.

No matter what, it sounds like you have a fun project planned.
 
I've got small hands so it'll be nearly a full tang knife. As for bolsters I'm going to try to make one similar as to what you'd actually find on a long leaf khukuri. The handle, on the other hand, might look like those wicked light thamar dui chirrra.
 
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Making the traditional bolsters suuuuuuucks...i can try to take some process pics, but your best bet is to start with steel tubing close to the right size once it's squashed into an oval. There's some cutting and brazing/welding once you upset the mouth of the tubing down to fit the blade.
One thing to remember with the partial tang khuks is they're not logsplitters, no matter how heavy. That's a lot of lever acting on that tang. Making the bolster cover slightly more of the handle helps a little.
Youcould also probably make a bolster from a 1" copper plumbing endcap.
And no matter what epoxy you use for the love of dog pin the handle-I have seen swordapults (and khukapults) inadvertently fired and they can go a long way.
 
From the sounds I may weld on an extension to increase the tang's length, but I'll decide what I'm doing once I get the blade in hand. AC is closed through Sunday so I'm not expecting the blade to be here til Tuesday with the one day shipping. When I find out the tang length I'll decide what to do. I THINK I have some copper tubing around for a bolster but it sounds like a pain in the arse. Might find another alternative to a traditional bolster and make something that looks similar out of a single piece of steel.
 
You really, really need the band of metal around the handle-this works ok but you can see it still cracked. Go at least 1/2", if you build it this way.
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Could I, in theory, just bore out the solid stock to fit over the handle as if it's bound around? With the lack of an indoor forge and the abundance of snow storms it's a bit hard to get the forge going to heat and hart anything around a mandrel.
 
I bought a Bhojpure and a Longleaf blade a few years ago. Neither of them came with the bolster. The Longleaf that I received had a shorter, wider tang than the Bhojpure.

I recall a video where the tang was converted to a full tang (chiruwa) by welding on an extension. Found the video...
(Disregard the poor design decisions.)

http://youtu.be/QkoLadhy_r4


With this method, a curved chiruwa handle could be made similar to this recently offered Samsher (and the bolster could even be skipped since it wouldn't really be necessary with a chiruwa handle):
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Saw a bit of that video before but when I saw the end product I'm the start I instantly quit the video. gives me a bit of an idea though. Hoping the tang is long enough for me to pull it off without welding. I've got lady hands after all.
 
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You could pour a bolster onto the handle and blade. Many original Khuks I've seen had poured bolsters on the. I've done it and long rifle chevron nose caps many times and is easy to do. You can use babbit, but high nickle content babbit, such as "Nickelite", looks much nicer and stays shiny longer. Here's a couple of photos previously posted as an example.
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Open to all ideas for sure. Debating doing a two piece construction for the sake of simplicity on the handle. Depending on tang thickness, I may be able to stretch it out in my forge. I've heard the steel is UBER soft on these, are they hardenable? In terms of a bolster I've got a few ideas going. All of yours sound like great ideas! The less money I have to pour into this project though, the better. I can scrounge most of everything I need for a bolster and handle material. The idea has come across to maybe use a section of old lawn mower blade to wrap around a drift and try and work with.
 
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If I can find some either copper or iron piping I may do it that way, seems easy enough and it can be cold forged. Worse comes to worse I can cut and re weld the pipe to fit my blade.
 
Don't try to forge out the tang. You can mig, tig or gas weld onto it no problem-just clamp some heavy stock on as a heat sink near the blade. I'd avoid the chiruwa weld if possible-too much heat near the tang juncture led to the only broken tang I've ever made-welding to high carbon can lead to weird hardness inclusions (which you can anneal on the end of a stick tang).
 
Definately wasn't doing the chiruwa tang, and I'd love to try and evade welding if possible, but if I need to it won't be much. Is it possible to harden these blades? May try heating it up with a torch and differentials hardening it if it'll harden it.
 
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