An Australian in Nepal: The Khukuri Files

I have to say fugglesby.....

Chopping washing machines, bicycles, rebar....metal
Rocks, concrete, cinderblock, brick and the like are things that are considered abuse and anyone who respects their tools as they should would not subject their blade to them. I would not base my tests on results from these abusive behaviors. Any of these things can make the best of blades fail.
This type of thing creates as much controversy and unreasonable expectation from the end users as the "knife tests" videos did back in the day.
This type of thing isn't really a fault of materials or workmanship, but a fault in the users thinking. It should not be encouraged.

Since you get these for your work, you may wish to try these things and not care too much, but I guarantee you that if a paying customer does these same things and damages his blade there will be hell to pay unless KHHI is willing to warranty such abusive acts....and if they decide to, be prepared for an onslaught of broken blades and replacement units going out at company expense.
 
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Karda, I completely agree. That sort of activity is abuse and comes from a different mindset about how one views, uses and values a tool. It's certainly not a reverential approach to the tool by any means. The issue though, is that this kind of durability is respected by a certain breed of knife enthusiast, I'm sure you're familiar with the sort. There the priority is on maximum durability and reliability. I COULD use this knife to cut a car to pieces (busse style) which means that it can definitely handle any of the hardwood in my local area or anything else that might arise in an emergency, tapping into operator fantasies etc. While this in itself is not an issue, the problem arises when the knife either fails to repeat such destructive tests or forgoes actual cutting performance to prioritise these unlikely user scenarios. With the right geometry, you can easily make a knife that can baton through a bolt. The question is whether it can shave or slice a tomato properly as well. If the knife still performs the usual roles excellently then it's all fine by me. But if it doesn't then you've gone ahead and made a terrible knife and a pretty awful bolt cutter as well. The reason I do these tests is not to ascertain the knives cutting performance, but to test the durability and the limits which my knives can be subjected to, something that I feel is paramount. Also, it's fun.

Rostislav, it's a very common issue with almost all traditional khukuris. The lack of temper leaves you in a situation where you're forced to choose between a soft, tough point that will roll easily or a hard brittle point that will resist rolling but snap dramatically at a higher force level. The temper slightly reduces the hardness of the harder point, but greatly raises the toughness, with the result being a more stable point which will resist deformation to a much higher level and still roll as a failure mode, the most preferable option.
 
Sorry, didn't see your edited post.
I've spoken with saroj about it and ideally we would like to provide an unconditional lifetime blade warranty on most blade models that are given the new heat treat. However before that step is taken, we need to do a lot of testing first to make sure that the knives are consistently up to such damage and then there's the issue of the handles being strong enough as well. I don't imagine it would occur until quite a ways down the line, but that's a goal. Until then, I'm sure that people have the common sense to understand what does and what doesn't constitute abuse. The normalisation and the new heat treat should lead to a pretty highly destressed and uniform blade at the end of it, so if there are any blades actually snapping it'll be down to voids or similar structures in the actual steel used. One advantage that this 52100 does have over the salvaged spring steel is that it's far less likely to have any of these in the first place. Regardless, I'm not at a stage currently where I can really say for certain what the results will be of long time testing or if such a warranty is possible. Time will tell.
 
fugglesby said:
Sorry, didn't see your edited post.
I've spoken with saroj about it and ideally we would like to provide an unconditional lifetime blade warranty on most blade models that are given the new heat treat. However before that step is taken, we need to do a lot of testing first to make sure that the knives are consistently up to such damage and then there's the issue of the handles being strong enough as well. I don't imagine it would occur until quite a ways down the line, but that's a goal. Until then, I'm sure that people have the common sense to understand what does and what doesn't constitute abuse. The normalisation and the new heat treat should lead to a pretty highly destressed and uniform blade at the end of it, so if there are any blades actually snapping it'll be down to voids or similar structures in the actual steel used. One advantage that this 52100 does have over the salvaged spring steel is that it's far less likely to have any of these in the first place. Regardless, I'm not at a stage currently where I can really say for certain what the results will be of long time testing or if such a warranty is possible. Time will tell.
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You nor Saroj know what you are setting yourselves up for in that regard.
Add to it that you've both shown that you abuse blade yourselves.
HI used to have an unconditional lifetime warranty up until a few years ago and we've never sold on ebay.
I predict KHHI will be chest deep in return and replacements within two years of starting that kind of warranty.
You can't depend on everyone being honest with you when you offer free khukuri.
Any knife can be broken. No matter how good the heat treat.
 
Karda said:
Any knife can be broken. No matter how good the heat treat.
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The dealer I purchased my knife from used to have a warranty like what fugglesby has suggested. Then he lowered it just to wood chopping/batoning(which is good enough for me) after one of his customers apparently took his knife to the gun range and shot at it, breaking the handle, and then asked for a replacement. There is a reason that 'good' warranties do not last. People will go out of their way to demolish an 'indestructible' item thinking that because it is high quality, nothing could go wrong. HI calls their Ang Khola knives 'the unbreakable knife' on their product page. No doubt someone took this literally, purchased one, and broke it, asking for a replacement.

I would agree with Karda, that kind of warranty, especially with a handmade item that takes a lot of time to produce, would be destined to cause KHHI problems.
 
That's pretty much what happened. Abuse of the warranty due to people abusing their khukuri thinking it would be replaced and then some that were intentionally breaking them to affect replacement pretty much ended a good thing. Destructive testing fostering unreasonable expectation and a bit of dishonesty were the root cause.
 
I see. Thankyou for the warnings in advance, my friends. As I said, it's merely a goal and if the first year of the heat treat resulted in an unfavourable amount of returns, then it definitely wouldn't go forward. However, building up the warranty to be something more respectable is definitely a priority, regardless of whether it's unconditional or not.
I recall there being some form of warranty hubbub surrounding the bonecutter a while back, which I imagine is what you're referring to. I suppose that definitely is proof that people take these images and claims of durability more seriously than they should. However, I'm sure you also understand what you stand to gain from having a strong, dependable warranty and why it's something imporant for KHHI to have.
 
fugglesby said:
I see. Thankyou for the warnings in advance, my friends. As I said, it's merely a goal and if the first year of the heat treat resulted in an unfavourable amount of returns, then it definitely wouldn't go forward. However, building up the warranty to be something more respectable is definitely a priority, regardless of whether it's unconditional or not.
I recall there being some form of warranty hubbub surrounding the bonecutter a while back, which I imagine is what you're referring to. I suppose that definitely is proof that people take these images and claims of durability more seriously than they should. However, I'm sure you also understand what you stand to gain from having a strong, dependable warranty and why it's something imporant for KHHI to have.
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No, the problem actually centered around the Ang Khola. The Bonecutter had nothing to do with it.
We still have a strong, dependable warranty in place. It just doesn't cover abuse. Believe me, with the accumulated experience in khukuri and warranty we have plenty of knowledge to tell when a khukuri has been cared for as it should be.
 
.....And i correctly predicted massive ear rape the second i clicked the video

Heat treatment sure seems like more than half the job.....
 
Yeah, not a great camera and a lot of workshop noise. Not sure what you mean. Do you mean it seems like the majority of what i've done over there? If so, not really. The majority of the time was actually spent on organising the materials and skills and prototyping and setting up jigs for the kydex sheath. The rest of it was all knife design stuff and that takes a lot of time to ensure that all the kamis are doing everything correctly like handle contouring and grind angles etc. Much longer than you'd imagine.
 
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