Finding the hardening line on your khukuri or knife.

Yvsa

Yvsa

Joined
May 18, 1999
Messages
15,395
We've talked about etching and polishing to find the hardening lines on our khukuri's and knives and we know that both work and work reasonably well with etching being the easiest way of the two.:) ;)
I don't know how many of y'all might have caught the thread I posted on the Iron Mistress Bowie and the part about finding her hardening line so thought I would post it seperately.

The way I found it was by putting a satin finish on the blade with a piece of the red/maroon Scotch-Brite prior to etching .
The almost mirror polished blade easily showed the hardening line when I started rubbing the blade along its very hard edge.
The softer steel above the hardened edge scratched a lot easier than the hardened edge which hardly scratched all all if any and the hard edge just popped, nothing else needed.:D :cool:

I'll still try to get pix when I get to where I can bend and stoop again and I can get back to it. I still need to finish sharpening it with the Fine Norton India Oilstone.
I kept getting interupted the other day.:o ;) :grumpy:

So if you think the edge is hard enough on your khukuri maybe some judicious rubbing with a piece of Scotch-Brite might pop its hardening line and maybe no etching will be needed.:thumbup: :D :cool:
 
I have seen the hardened area pop out when working the area near the edge with fine grit sandpaper - about 1000 grit.
 
I have a BAS and an AK bowie with satin from scotch brite green pads.... just took a look at the AK. Gotta admit, I was thinking "Naaahhh..."

Lo and behold, what I thought was a stain on the edge is in the same place on both sides... Thanks, Yvsa.

The blade HAD to be satin-ized. I used the knife to clean a huge redfish last summer and fish-acid ruined the mirror. So what, but that's what I thought had marked the edge.

Here's the pic: Interesting, I thought it was last summer. It's May. Even a shot of the Cursed FEMA trailer there. That was so long ago...

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=346653&highlight=redfish


Ad Astra
 
Ad Astra said:
Lo and behold, what I thought was a stain on the edge is in the same place on both sides... Thanks, Yvsa.

I used the knife to clean a huge redfish last summer and fish-acid ruined the mirror.

Ad Astra
Click to expand...

You're welcome Mike.:D

Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm, Redfish!!!! I can still taste them from 58 years ago when I was a kid in Texas!!!!:thumbup: :cool: :D
 
how much does the hamon extends away from the edge ? i inch ?

and is the haman narrower around the belly ? (narrower towards the tip and tang ?)

:o
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top