Favorite blade smith?

L

lizzardbone

Joined
Jul 28, 2006
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253
Who is your favorite blade smith in regard to zone tempering? Placement on edge, length of tempered zone. Does each kami have his own distincitive style/preference or is it more of what has traditionally worked for a particular blade style and it's intended purpose? Regardless, Sher is currently my favorite in this aspect. But I am still begining my collection. Any you guys have a favorite?
 
I dunno. Kumar sometimes does a fuller length job, as does Sher, but not always. Bura can be very good also. I saw Dave Rishar's picture of an etch that revealed the hardened zone of a Museum model, and I thought that was too small a area. On the other hand, there is this belief or force today in the forum that a full length hardened edge is a better thing. I don't think it is. Certainly not near or on the tip of a working khuk, though appropriate for the conventional knives.
I don't think the hard edge has to extend to the handle, either, on a working khuk. I'm mildly concerned we'd be losing something to demand a full length zone, though admit I don't know what that is exactly. I mean, would such khuks cost more? Or how about more prone to breakage at the handle? Does the softer metal to either side of the hardened zone act as a buffer, both in shock and in protecting the integrity of the hardened zone? In other words, does the flex to each side of the zone protect the stiffer, more brittle edge? I don't know. There are probably good reasons why one should not have a completely hardened edge from the handle to tip of a khuk, though a more generous length seems good to me. I thought Kesar was sometimes a little stingy in his zones. I like a little over because then as I chop it's easier to get value out of a slight miss from the sweet spot. There's no doubt that for chopping, just like the sweet zone of a baseball bat, going too far up or too low is non- productive. Kamis have been making this design hundreds of years for a reason.

HI's conventional knives are being hardened full length, I hope. That is what Yangdu asked the kamis to do.

munk
 
Thanks for your thoughts munk. I too like the hardened material to extend a bit beyond the sweet spot on my workers. I hope to see unique trends among the diferent kamis as my collection grows. Thanks.
 
sadly he does not actually do it the way the kami do -- with archaic tools more akin to what has been used for thousands of years, not machine enhanced, not on a press, but hammered out on anvils without engines , by men who have done it their entire lives. This man no matter how good he is, only fit to be in the shadow of truly great smiths like bura, durba, sher, kumar, murali ,lachmu, lok, dil, bhakta, and keshar .

unless this guy works at birgorkha is not the place
 
This is a tricky matter where I forecast emotional responses.

The steel of a hand made blade cannot match the quality of one produce in a controlled industrial environment. Of course it depends how you define quality.
As blade shapes have their functions, specific alloys do too and some modern alloys can simply not be hand made.

We need to compare apple to apple to be fair. man to man with least automation possible should stay in a category of its own.

But you can have all the tools in the world, you need to know what you want to achieve with the end product. Too hard will brittle and break, too soft will bend. The right balance at the right place is an art not mastered by many. No matter if he/she is a metallurgy engineer or the best smith in the tribe.
 
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yeah if you want steel with no soul , go for machine made, it is exactly because of the ability it takes and the rarity that it is so much more than a machine can ever do until they become self aware and capable of abstractions and art.
 
Gehazi said:
yeah if you want steel with no soul , go for machine made, it is exactly because of the ability it takes and the rarity that it is so much more than a machine can ever do until they become self aware and capable of abstractions and art.
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No questions about that and reason #1 why I have been hanging around here. What you describe is what stroked me the first time I had a HI product in my hand.
 
A machine is only as good as its operator. And in mass production the operator is usually not the products creator. Kami takes idea from Gehazis head and creats a piece of functional art. He then hands it back to Gehazi via HI (Aunti). Gehazi benefits, Kami benefits, And Aunti puts beans on the table and equally benefits so she carries on the tradition of HI! No broker, no marketing, no distribution, Done deal.. I support this kind of fair trade anyday over mass production. Just my personal beliefs FWIW.
 
part of the charm of HI is that you are directly benefiting the people producing the product
 
Ok now that we have the fair trade, soul, art and spiritual matters out of the way...

And in order not to hurt any Kami's feelings, can someone list the guys and their respective specialties instead of saying who's best?
(The info on the HI website is aging, more current information would be nice)
 
thats a fair point, I would like to know current active kami-- but I think keshar lal has been there from the start, and is likely the best kami at birgorkha just by experience, though raj kumar probably has the most skill as he is the only one who can produce straight lines and swords , the new kami may show lots of talent, but I have never been disappointed by a tirtha , lok or lachmu, nor a dil or a bhakta -- bhakta does all the bowies im almost sure, lachmu does all the ASTK, I have stuff from salyans and small knives by murali and dil , i have llots by tirtha but I dont know if he is around any more
 
I think they are all good.

I never realized it until the redneck texas fella just said it but I think my favorite saying now is "Done Deal" especially when Auntie writes it. Kind of brings on instant euphoria. I had to look up the word, kind a big, I'm a dislocated red neck too!
 
yeah its always fun to close a deal and know your knife is on the way !-- but gotta agree with bawanna, none of them make bad stuff, they all have a good baseline of talent in the making of HI's stuff, I have not been disappointed yet !
 
Gehazi said:
yeah its always fun to close a deal and know your knife is on the way !-- but gotta agree with bawanna, none of them make bad stuff, they all have a good baseline of talent in the making of HI's stuff, I have not been disappointed yet !
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Unless your married to my wife, you get the instant euphoria and then seconds later you get the anticipation of forthcoming beating. My daughter was feeling unloved since I got both boys Khuks and not her. I was gonna get that Vojpuri yesterday for her, very pretty and make her feel better. Told the boys about it last night and wife heard it.
She gave me "THE LOOK". That's sometimes worse than the beating.
 
Unless I'm mistaken, isn't every knife out there with a differential temper heat treated by hand? Is there a machine that can do that? I assume even if you buy a mass produced knife made by stock removal with a CNC machine, the differential treatment is done by an actual person. I think that's why you have to spend several hundred dollars on a western-made knife before you can get one with a decent temper. You have to actually pay a skilled laborer to do it.

The difference between a good knife and a bad knife has very little to do with the steel quality these days. Even a cheap $10 8cr13mov chinese made knife has better steel in it than what 99.9% of blades were made with for the last thousand years. Somebody did stress tests of wootz steel damascus blades, which were considered the best steel in the ancient world, and compared them to modern run-of-the-mill solingen steel blades. They found that across the board, the modern blades performed twice as well as the ancient ones. The real difference between a good blade and a bad blade is the heat treatment and edge geometry. And that's why I'd rather have a HI blade that was forged and heat treated by a master than something made in a factory.

But back to the subject, I think Rajkumar is my favorite kami. I don't know how his blades perform compared to other kamis, but I think he makes the most beatiful blades.

Unless your married to my wife, you get the instant euphoria and then seconds later you get the anticipation of forthcoming beating.
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Mine's the same way. I usually try to sneak it into the house, and when she eventually notices I say "Oh, that? I bought that a long time ago. Didn't I show it to you already? I only paid (insert 2/3rds the real price here) for it." Not surprisingly it doesn't work that often.
 
My favorite kami is Vim based on heat treat and actual usability (as opposed to just fit & finish)
 
blue lander said:
I usually try to sneak it into the house, and when she eventually notices I say "Oh, that? I bought that a long time ago. Didn't I show it to you already? I only paid (insert 2/3rds the real price here) for it." Not surprisingly it doesn't work that often.
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I take it a step further. I don't ask, "Haven't you seen it already?" I just say, "Oh, you've seen that already." If she starts to ask about the price I just change the subject :D
 
Bawanna said:
She gave me "THE LOOK". That's sometimes worse than the beating.
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DooooH! That "LOOK" Leaves a scar! Tell your daughter your waiting for the right one! You have to wait till Aunti uses the phrase "cute little knife for your collection":thumbup: When she says "cute" I snap em up! 12" Sirupati! "Cute" I love it! Its mine!

Yeah...Wheres Tirtha? Hope hes still there?
 
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