This blade was forged by the local blade smith base on my drawing. However, there was a little difference in translating from the draft to the actual blade. I was unhappy with the shape. The peak is a bit wide. The shoulder is a bit backward which offered too much forward weight. The bottom line is also too curve
No blade is forged just to be a waste. Feeling sorry for this rejected blade, one day, I decided to take it to the bench grinder. I shaved the top-line for a thinner peak. I also moved the shoulder a bit further out for less forward weight. For bottom-line, I shaved a bit on the belly (near the sweet spot) for a straighter edge, then shaved off a bit in the curve to create slimmer waist. Then the blade looks smarter as in the pix. I dont know which design to name it after. It doesnt look like a WW2, not a BAS, neither a Chit. Its a mix of them all created from my memories.
For Kamis, they forge the fuller. For me, I dont have forging tools then I used the hand grinder with a 4 diameter sanding disc to shave it down, until I dig to about 2.5 mm from the surface. For the edge, I used a file to achieve a convex bevel, about ½ wide each side.
For the Cho, I used the small half moon file to file it to shape. A nice incident happened when I showed it to my wife, she said: the cow hoof from Nepalese khukuris are not equal, the toe near the curve is bigger than the one near the bolster. Thats fantastic observation! Thats brilliant! Wife first, then God second, and I decided to make one big toe and one small toe as you see in the pix.
As for Shiva Sword, I used a chised but could not drive deep enough. Then I used a triangular file and drag it on the blade with a straight ruler. Its like you draw a line on paper with pen and ruler. I made it this way.
This time, I invented a way to make the bolster from sheet stock. Firstly, I drilled hole and shaped up the wood base under bolster. I measured the circumference of the blade and the wood base (where bolster wraps) to make a brass ring. This brass ring is not even. The Cho-end of the ring is smaller than the handle-end. I draft-lay the ring into the handle, then hammer it allover to bring into shape. It looks nicer than my previous time, right?
The handle is the hardest part. From my experience, this peened type is even more difficult than the rivet type. Before this one, I had to destroy 2 previous handles that as I was unhappy. For the first and second time, I finished handle separately with palm rings ready and tang hol drilled. However, when assembled into tang, the handle and blade mis-aligned. The top-line of handle did not align with top-line of blade, same for bottom-line. It looked ugly. I could not repair and had to remove it. Learning from experience, I did not finish handle first but let it as a raw block of wood, in a draft shape of a handle. This way would leave some extra wood as buffer for alignment with blade later on. I drilled hole, draft-fit into tang, made the bolster, expoxied it and grind the excess wood off.
This time, I used a very hard and heavy wood. The scientific name is Dalbergia Cochinchinensis Pierre. In the old times, it was used to make column / pillars in royal palace. After filing, I sanded the handle with 400, 800, 1000 then 2000 grit, lightly buff.
Enjoy the pix
No blade is forged just to be a waste. Feeling sorry for this rejected blade, one day, I decided to take it to the bench grinder. I shaved the top-line for a thinner peak. I also moved the shoulder a bit further out for less forward weight. For bottom-line, I shaved a bit on the belly (near the sweet spot) for a straighter edge, then shaved off a bit in the curve to create slimmer waist. Then the blade looks smarter as in the pix. I dont know which design to name it after. It doesnt look like a WW2, not a BAS, neither a Chit. Its a mix of them all created from my memories.
For Kamis, they forge the fuller. For me, I dont have forging tools then I used the hand grinder with a 4 diameter sanding disc to shave it down, until I dig to about 2.5 mm from the surface. For the edge, I used a file to achieve a convex bevel, about ½ wide each side.
For the Cho, I used the small half moon file to file it to shape. A nice incident happened when I showed it to my wife, she said: the cow hoof from Nepalese khukuris are not equal, the toe near the curve is bigger than the one near the bolster. Thats fantastic observation! Thats brilliant! Wife first, then God second, and I decided to make one big toe and one small toe as you see in the pix.
As for Shiva Sword, I used a chised but could not drive deep enough. Then I used a triangular file and drag it on the blade with a straight ruler. Its like you draw a line on paper with pen and ruler. I made it this way.
This time, I invented a way to make the bolster from sheet stock. Firstly, I drilled hole and shaped up the wood base under bolster. I measured the circumference of the blade and the wood base (where bolster wraps) to make a brass ring. This brass ring is not even. The Cho-end of the ring is smaller than the handle-end. I draft-lay the ring into the handle, then hammer it allover to bring into shape. It looks nicer than my previous time, right?
The handle is the hardest part. From my experience, this peened type is even more difficult than the rivet type. Before this one, I had to destroy 2 previous handles that as I was unhappy. For the first and second time, I finished handle separately with palm rings ready and tang hol drilled. However, when assembled into tang, the handle and blade mis-aligned. The top-line of handle did not align with top-line of blade, same for bottom-line. It looked ugly. I could not repair and had to remove it. Learning from experience, I did not finish handle first but let it as a raw block of wood, in a draft shape of a handle. This way would leave some extra wood as buffer for alignment with blade later on. I drilled hole, draft-fit into tang, made the bolster, expoxied it and grind the excess wood off.
This time, I used a very hard and heavy wood. The scientific name is Dalbergia Cochinchinensis Pierre. In the old times, it was used to make column / pillars in royal palace. After filing, I sanded the handle with 400, 800, 1000 then 2000 grit, lightly buff.
Enjoy the pix
Years ago when I first started buying HI Khuks the handles were in fact more egg shaped than oval even and were much more comfortable than my later HI's!!!:thumbup: 
