Chakma and Karda question?

Originally posted by pendentive
Right....But....If you own more than a few khukuris - like, ahem, a few of us do... :D

Then figuring out a way to harden them up to 61 or so sounds like a much better plan to me.

Dan
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Dan I was just tzn... sorta. It would be an excellent option for those less skilled or those who simply don't have the time or don't want to mess with the project.:D ;)

Originally posted by Kismet
are the new ones up to the standard of the old?

I have three old Marbles...two Woodcrafter and a 40's Scout knife..and as beat-up as they are, just love 'em. Of course, the "new" one is from the early 50's.:)

The images I've seen look...dunno...commercial somehow....Are they as well made? Decent steel?

Thanks.
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Kismet I can't say enough good about the new Marble's. IMO they're far superior to the old ones so you know what that means!!!! :D :cool:
Their Big Bowie has once had a problem, it's 5160, and of course Marble's was right on it and took care of the problem.

The 52100 steel the new Marble's are made from is probably my favorite steel and 'specially when it's been hand forged such as Fowler and Ray Kirk does it too name just a couple.
The old Marble's are 1095, but like a lot of old knives it's 1095 that's 50 years old, or more, and so completely stable and transformed!!!!______________________________________________________________________

Personally I think the kamis ought to see that the karda and chakma are just as good as the khukuri itself.
After all when you purchase a khuk you expect a whole and complete system and we get that only very seldom.
Like the hollow ground edges it's all about production and how many they can get out.:( :rolleyes: :(
Human greed is the same all over it seems.:rolleyes:
 
If I remember correctly, the very newest Marbles are now made from some proprietary steel with a catchy name.

There have been some threads on it in the "General" forum--they should appear in a search. From what I saw, opinion was divided on whether it was an improvment or not, or made much of a difference. Some did make an effort to find earlier ones made from 52100 though.
 
Marbles has changed their steels, but are still great knives.

And Yvsa, I know you were jsut messing with us. But I will point out that I've never known anyone in this forum to take the easy answer to a problem. That just wouldn't be fun.

Being an okie, that goes double for me. ;)
 
IMHO, a couple of first class Karda replacements would be the Muskrat and the Cub Bear from Knives of Alaska

They both are available with stag, desert ironwood, or synthetic handles. They aren't cheap, but they amongst some of the best quality knives you can find and they are sized just about perfectly for use as a Karda.

Muskrat
muscrat_big.jpg


Cub Bear
cubbear.jpg


Muskrat-CubBearComboBIg.jpg
 
Anza Knives sells reasonably priced knives made from files that would make great kardas. Here's a pic of one;

t6_lg.jpg


Sarge
 
My assumtion is that the Karda is made of the same steel the Khukuri is.

Since the Karda doesn't need to withstand blows, the whole blade can be tempered and it would make a 1st class knife. The karda I have takes and holds an edge quite well, I just wish they had put a bit more care into it's manufacture.

Quite frankly, I'd even be willing to pay a bit more for the Khukuri if that is what it takes to get a really well done Karda and Chakma or HI's Kamis could just make a series of really first class Kardas as replacements people could buy.

For instance, look at this knife from Anza:

f_1_lg.jpg


It's very close to the size of the Karda on a WWII. It's $47 for one with a wood handleand $86 with a stag handle. That's nuts. It wouldn't be THAT much extra effort to turn out a Karda that looked about as good.
 
OK, I'll agree that adding $5 or $10 to the rig's price for some extra finishing and maybe more careful heat-treating on the C&K would appear to make sense for everyone. And I'd be willing to pay for it.

But I wouldn't say $50-$80 for a simple handground knife made in the US is necessarily nuts... Actually it appears to me to be less nuts than longshoremen making over $100,000 a year (pretax), or the median price of a house in my county being over $350,000.

I'm sure that that extra $5 or $10 would buy a hell of a lot more rice in Nepal than $50-$80 dollars would anywhere in the US.

Sarge,

I'm guessing that these are hollow-ground?

If they are flat-ground, they look pretty interesting to me....
 
Originally posted by etp777
Marbles has changed their steels, but are still great knives.

And Yvsa, I know you were jsut messing with us. But I will point out that I've never known anyone in this forum to take the easy answer to a problem. That just wouldn't be fun.

Being an okie, that goes double for me. ;)
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If you haven't noticed, I'm lost somewhere in Oklahoma. Now that's really bad!!!!:rolleyes: :D ;)
 
Oops, sorry, the particular Anza knife I posted a pic of sells for 18 bucks. I'm like you Firkin, them things look hollow ground to me. No big deal, I prefer to make my own anyhow. How well do my old homemade knives cut and hold an edge? Just ask any of the following, 'cause if I told ya it would just sound like bragging;

Pappy
Berk
Pen
Samurai Dave
Kismet
yup, even Uncle Bill

DDean, I do like the idea of pairing up a matched brace of Kagas Katnes with one of my khukuris, that would be sweet!

Sarge
 
You're wrong Sarge...

:eek:






Add "Pen's wife" to the list... :D

;)


:p
 
Well dadgum, my apologies to the missus Dan, for that and for something else I forgot. I've got a knife for her. It's got a 4" blade (12C27 Sandvik stainless from Karesuando), a handle made from a very nice piece of Axis deer antler with a 1/8" thick brass hilt plate, and a cute little silver mounted amethyst cabochon set into the pommel. It's one high falootin' 'tater peeler. I meant to send it quite a while back, but hadn't gotten around to making a scabbard for it. Somewhere down the line it slipped my mind completely. No worries, I'll get it squared away.

Sarge
 
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