Cleaning up a military khukuri in fairly good condition.

Drdan

Drdan

Joined
Dec 24, 2003
Messages
1,390
I found someone where I live in Italy who is interested in selling an 18", 950 gm. WW2 military khukuri in good condition, but it will need to be cleaned up quite a bit. The handle is wood, and is supposedly in good shape with minor cracks and chips, and is rock solid. The blade is dull, has some deep scratches, a bit of superficial rust and some minor pitting. The edge also has several dings, but are said to be minor. I want a good knife for cutting practice enjoyment, and for the price, about 40 Euro, I'll get a lot of bang for the buck.

I'd appreciate it very much if some of you can give me some basic details on getting the blade in good condition. The handle crack repair job was covered in a recent post, and seems rather straight-foward... I don't have a grinder or access to one, but am more than willing to put as much time as needed with sandpaper (grit sizes?, metal files, and elbow grease. I can also get a sharpening system at a local knife shop.

Thanks for your help!

Dan
 
Dan, by 'WWII', did you mean 'WWII-era' or 'WWII-style'? If 'era', have you considered minimally restoring it, and getting a blem from Uncle Bill as a 'user'? Historical value is sometimes worth preserving.
 
It will be a "beater", but I want to get it as nice as possible both for enjoyment, and for practice.
 
Dan, there are people here who are a WHOLE lot better at answering this than I am, but...

To clean and polish the blade, start with 150 or 220 grit sandpaper to remove the rust, pitting, and scratches. If the scratches are really deep, you might have to go even courser to get them completely out. Keep going to finer grits until you have the finish you want. I usually finish with 0000 steel wool.

As for heavy sharpening, I prefer a diamond card, such as sold by Ragweed Forge ($14 for 2-sided, fine and medium grit), followed by a ceramic rod and sharpening steel.

For LOTS more, search the forum for 'sharpening', 'convex', 'sandpaper', etc.

Good luck.
 
Thanks, Aardvark! That, and a bit of oil should be all it needs. I'll look into having a diamond card sent over from family in Virginia; not likely it would be available ANYWHERE here... Dan
 
I don't agree that you don't have any talent; I do agree that I must remember to not remove any fingers in the process. Nice "before to after" transition...
 
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