foxy fun... foxy failure :(

Sylvrfalcn said:
Khukuri testing, as advocated by Uncle Bill, might have seemed a bit harsh, but he was very adamant that every new khukuri should be thoroughly tested. The kamis are wonderful craftsmen, but they're just men, and men ain't perfect, thank God.

Sarge

Good advice, and I didn't pick up on this at first from Uncle Bill, just because of the time I joined. But Yvsa subsequently mentioned it several times, and I have done this periodically, but I have a whole bunch that have never been tested. I'm almost afraid to do so now!

Norm
 
munk said:
The aging trailer, is being held up by defective khukuris bolted together....
munk

Now that's an image.

Here in Appalachia we have unusual trailers. My favorite is when somebody is living in a camper and then they start building onto it and you come upon this shanty and on one of the outside walls is one end of a camper like it was just swallowed up:D

On a more serious note as expensive as all metals are now and as many aspiring metalsmiths as there are around here Yangdu should offer the bent ones for sale here for reprocessing into other knives.
 
Here in Appalachia we have unusual trailers. My favorite is when somebody is living in a camper and then they start building onto it and you come upon this shanty and on one of the outside walls is one end of a camper like it was just swallowed up - Hollow

Hollow, that is a fantastic image. Here in Reservation country you sometimes see things like that too.

munk
 
hollowdweller said:
On a more serious note as expensive as all metals are now and as many aspiring metalsmiths as there are around here Yangdu should offer the bent ones for sale here for reprocessing into other knives.

well, we have no dearth of truck springs in the usa... if people want to start from scratch.

some of the poor knives that go back, if someone has a grinder, and time, and can heat treat, they could be turned into interesting new knives. imagine my sent-back foxy turned into a hybrid - a lot of metal would come off reprofiling/etc, but it would still have more leaf shape than a BDC or GS, and probably be interesting and unique as heck.

bladite
 
Admission time. Want to hear something sad? I'm afraid to *really* test my khukris. :eek: I'll explain, but I'm afraid it'll reveal me for the poser I am.

1) What if the khukri fails? I choose mine very deliberately...and it takes me awhile to side-up to a blade and feel comfortable with it. I'd have a hard time parting with any of my favorites, and I almost don't want to know if the blade's sub-par. Separation anxiety?

2) I read somewhere that even if people buy something they don't want, they can't sell it right away...something about the nature of justifying your own shopping ability. You can't just say to yourself easily "I made a bad choice" (well, I can't, at least).
You have to keep an item for awhile until it undergoes "perceived deppreciation" (like putting the ill-fitting shirt in the back of the closet) and you feel that enough time has passed to justify a change of mind and a need to sell/ junk the item.
To make a long story short, I have to wait before I have the heart to test my purchases, most times.

3) Testing still leaves marks. I put a small divot in my Tarwar (nothing really, and well within the blade's limits). I mostly filed it out, but the mark still breaks my heart, as it's an imperfection...albeit one acquired through "honest" use.

Weird, huh? Anyone else feel this way?

i know it's messed up, but heck, it's the way I work. Besides (weak justification in 5, 4,3,2....) I don't have any oak logs to chop or crannies to stick my blades into for testing lateral stress (well, besides the obvious crannies some might tell me to stick it in).

I still trust that almost all (if not all) would pass the testing process anyway, so, uh, so there.

addendum...I DO chop with all my khuks..but it's usually scrap wood and such. Nothing that would try a khuk's patience.
 
We've talked about this before, and some few have experiemented. When Bill was alive he had Art S. do a lot of repair work. In the case of your FF, if it really is only the one spot.... well, don't know. Knife makers will weigh in.
I don't know if it's possible to change the heat treat of an area without changing the surrounding area, which would mean you'd have to redo the entire edge.

Sometimes there is a blade failure. No one jumps for joy but no one should jump off a bridge or think of herculean repairs.

there's leaf spring laying around all across America. There's 7 or 8 forties to late fifties vehicles laying in a drainage not one minute from my house with leaf springs. We should all be knife makers and keep the economy going by buying each other's knives....



munk
 
Soapah; we live in a weird world, a strange society, and anxious crazy thoughts about our belongings are normal. I feel the way you do, but I handle it differently: I usually take every blade and put it through my own test. Initially the khuk has a few warm up blows against some pine wood. Then some hard blows, then harder, then a couple hardest, and finally a couple hard blows against seasoned, sap wood, iron hard.

Now, I won't test my Cherokee Rose like that, but I did cut wood to make sure the blade was up to spec. I won't put the Crow knife through that torture either, but it too has chopped wood.
All normal sized HI khuks get tested though.

You can break anything. If I kept swinging as hard as I could against an unyielding surface, (like some of that sap wood) it would take a lot out of the blades. Their lifespan would probably not be as great.

I initially test hard enough to trust the blade, and then use the tool responsibly afterwards.... take care of it, used properly, (not too much force which is wasteful and dangerous anyway or against materials I know are not part of the job description) they will be handed down to my sons.


munk
 
I guess we buy different knives for different reasons. My 16 1/2" WWII has a couple of small dings in the edge, which get smaller with every sharpening. It's a user, and I worry about those imperfections no more than I do about the place on the ax handle where my son overshot the round he was trying to split. Regrettable, but ultimately an OK thing.

Were I to have bought essentially a collector knife though, rather than something I intended as a user, I'd probably sing a different tune.

t.
 
Tom, a few of my blades are dinged from the field. When you chop wood, there can be small rocks embedded in the bark, and it is very easy for one part of the blade to contact wood while the tip hits the ground.

I just sharpen and use. I don't reprofile. Why? Why waste metal? Eventually, I'll get down to it.


munk
 
Huh! I rolled the edge on my recently aquired 15" Pen knife.
A little scrapee-scrapee with the chakma and some draw filing with a semi-smooth and then the sandpaper and strop and you can hardly see it now.
 
I have screwed up more of mine thru actual use than testing:D

I'm the opposite I want it to have some scuffs. I have filed some of the minor bends out and made the edge thicker and it worked but if it bends as much as Bladites, or a bunch of little bends all along one section then I'd send it back.
 
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