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are kardas hardened?
- Thread starter new
- Start date
- Joined
- May 18, 1999
- Messages
- 15,395
New, not to dispute Wolf's word and bearing in mind it's been a long while since I've bought any khukuris I'm just gonna say that when I was actively buying the hardening on the kardas and chakmas left a lot to be desired, in my experience anyway.:grumpy: :foot:
But ---- to crawfish about what I just said some folks have been perfectly happy with the karda's ability to take and hold an edge.:thumbup:
If memory serves me I'm pretty sure that Yangdu has instructed the kamis to make sure all of the small HI Knives like the R-6, Sarge Knife, and others to be hardened the full length of the edge, I don't know about the kardas and chakmas.
On the other hand it's sometimes very beneficial to have a knife that holds an edge fairly well while being really easy to sharpen. YMMV.
Oh yeah, before my manners get lost... Welcome to the HI Forums.:thumbup:
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Most of my khukuris - 7 of them - I really do use.
Some I use more than others of course.
I have noticed with the kardas that some are harder than others and I can tell by the sound they make that they do seem to be zone hardened because only a specific area of the edge *rings* when I steel it.
But some of them are significantly harder than others.
The hardening of the kardas which came with all my chitlangis seems to be reasonably good. I've used the long karda which came with my 26" Chitlangi (Bura) to shave with and it worked fairly well.
The karda from my 20" Ang Khola (Kumar) is so-so but serviceable.
The karda from my 25" Sirupati (Vim) is very very good. of all my kardas, that one has the hardest edge. It took nearly an hour with my diamond hone just to get the edge profile where I wanted it.
My most recent H.I. acquisition is an odd one. It's a 20.25" Sirupati by Bura which came with two kardas instead of the usual karda-chakma combo. One of them has a very hard edge which is hard to about the last 1/8" at the tip and the other is barely hardened at all. They also arrived with the usual high polish blades but the handles were kinda rough; unstained, unpolished, and having more of a Villager appearance. I was able to easily remedy that though so it's not a big deal.
Some I use more than others of course.
I have noticed with the kardas that some are harder than others and I can tell by the sound they make that they do seem to be zone hardened because only a specific area of the edge *rings* when I steel it.
But some of them are significantly harder than others.
The hardening of the kardas which came with all my chitlangis seems to be reasonably good. I've used the long karda which came with my 26" Chitlangi (Bura) to shave with and it worked fairly well.
The karda from my 20" Ang Khola (Kumar) is so-so but serviceable.
The karda from my 25" Sirupati (Vim) is very very good. of all my kardas, that one has the hardest edge. It took nearly an hour with my diamond hone just to get the edge profile where I wanted it.
My most recent H.I. acquisition is an odd one. It's a 20.25" Sirupati by Bura which came with two kardas instead of the usual karda-chakma combo. One of them has a very hard edge which is hard to about the last 1/8" at the tip and the other is barely hardened at all. They also arrived with the usual high polish blades but the handles were kinda rough; unstained, unpolished, and having more of a Villager appearance. I was able to easily remedy that though so it's not a big deal.
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2005
- Messages
- 20,029
I've never had one come hardened.
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2005
- Messages
- 20,029
Yes. The JKM's and Kumar Karda's I've owned have all been hardened. The ones attached to the khuk scabbards have not been. This never bothered me because I always removed them from my scabbards in order to thin the rig. Like these.
