- Joined
- Mar 8, 1999
- Messages
- 8,911
Am finally getting around to the second of three toys I brought home Thursday. ( The first was the 30" Sirupati I commented on in another thread. )
I haven't done anything yet with the 12" AK. Reason for that is the scabbard shrank to smaller than the blade width. I literally could not work it out of the scabbard without slicing thru the top 2/3rd to 3/4th inch of leather above the frog. Took a knife and file to the top inside of the scabbard next to the spine and smoothed it out. Explored every other thing I could think of and kept coming back to the conclusion the blade was just plain wider than the throat of the scabbard. Gave up and filed the edge down to make the blade a couple 16ths narrower. Now I have it taken down and it will go in without cutting the scabbard. But putting it in and removing the blade forces the already sliced leather and wood apart because it's too thick at the edge, and I haven't beveled it down yet.
Of course the widest part is the meatiest and also the most hardened part. The file wants to slip and slide over it rather than cut into the metal. This is the forte of the tungsten carbide V sharpeners that I'm sure a lot of knife people feel are an abomination. No, they won't put a good edge on a knife. Yes, a few LIGHT strokes will bring a previously sharp edge back to usability. But for me the one thing they do without peer is to hog metal off fast and shape it to where an edge can be worked with other tools. That's what I'm doing now.
In a way though, it's what the yuppies would call "quality time" with the baby AK. I'm getting to run my hands over every fraction of an inch of it without having to worry about getting sliced up.
The 12" AK is still very much an AK in the way a 12" Sirupati is still very much a Sirupati. The difference between the two 12"ers is about the same as the difference between 15" AK and Sirupati. The babies are just as much AK or Sirupati as the bigger ones. I just haven't figured out whether they are khukuris or not. I guess if you could call the Graf Spee a pocket battleship, you could call the babies pocket khukuris. I see a 15" or larger khuk as a "service" khuk the way a 4" K,L, or N frame S&W or 4" Police Positive, Official Police, or I frame Trooper or Python are open carry/service revolvers, and the 2 or 2 1/2" versions on the same frame are undercover/snubbie revolvers.
So bottom line is that it may be the littlest AK, but it's still an AK. Now I'll sign off and go back to fondling it.
I haven't done anything yet with the 12" AK. Reason for that is the scabbard shrank to smaller than the blade width. I literally could not work it out of the scabbard without slicing thru the top 2/3rd to 3/4th inch of leather above the frog. Took a knife and file to the top inside of the scabbard next to the spine and smoothed it out. Explored every other thing I could think of and kept coming back to the conclusion the blade was just plain wider than the throat of the scabbard. Gave up and filed the edge down to make the blade a couple 16ths narrower. Now I have it taken down and it will go in without cutting the scabbard. But putting it in and removing the blade forces the already sliced leather and wood apart because it's too thick at the edge, and I haven't beveled it down yet.
Of course the widest part is the meatiest and also the most hardened part. The file wants to slip and slide over it rather than cut into the metal. This is the forte of the tungsten carbide V sharpeners that I'm sure a lot of knife people feel are an abomination. No, they won't put a good edge on a knife. Yes, a few LIGHT strokes will bring a previously sharp edge back to usability. But for me the one thing they do without peer is to hog metal off fast and shape it to where an edge can be worked with other tools. That's what I'm doing now.
In a way though, it's what the yuppies would call "quality time" with the baby AK. I'm getting to run my hands over every fraction of an inch of it without having to worry about getting sliced up.
The 12" AK is still very much an AK in the way a 12" Sirupati is still very much a Sirupati. The difference between the two 12"ers is about the same as the difference between 15" AK and Sirupati. The babies are just as much AK or Sirupati as the bigger ones. I just haven't figured out whether they are khukuris or not. I guess if you could call the Graf Spee a pocket battleship, you could call the babies pocket khukuris. I see a 15" or larger khuk as a "service" khuk the way a 4" K,L, or N frame S&W or 4" Police Positive, Official Police, or I frame Trooper or Python are open carry/service revolvers, and the 2 or 2 1/2" versions on the same frame are undercover/snubbie revolvers.
So bottom line is that it may be the littlest AK, but it's still an AK. Now I'll sign off and go back to fondling it.
