i don't understand... little help?

S

SkaerE

Joined
Sep 9, 2001
Messages
428
so i took my HI WWII out to butcher a buck I got today, truth be told I haven't used it that much (got lost in a move years ago and I just re-found it).

Anyhow, I lopped off his lower joints to hang and skin him and to my surprise I had 3 or 4 nice almost 1/4'' gouges in the khuk blade edge!

By gouges i mean rounded steel, bent clean over. Is this usual? i feel like this should not be the case, have there ever been issues with improperly hardened blades? last deer i did the same to was with a $9 cold steel machete and I did not notice the same issue...and fwiw its 3mm 1050 series steel with a questionable hardening (made in china i think) before that was a gerber hatchet, again...no issue going through bone.

thanks, i'll post some pictures of the blade.
 
Bone is very hard. Since you said the steel was bent not chipped, the steel sounds softer than the bone.
 
SkaerE said:
so i took my HI WWII out to butcher a buck I got today, truth be told I haven't used it that much (got lost in a move years ago and I just re-found it).

Anyhow, I lopped off his lower joints to hang and skin him and to my surprise I had 3 or 4 nice almost 1/4'' gouges in the khuk blade edge!

By gouges i mean rounded steel, bent clean over. Is this usual? i feel like this should not be the case, have there ever been issues with improperly hardened blades? last deer i did the same to was with a $9 cold steel machete and I did not notice the same issue...and fwiw its 3mm 1050 series steel with a questionable hardening (made in china i think) before that was a gerber hatchet, again...no issue going through bone.

thanks, i'll post some pictures of the blade.
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There have been discussions on this subject already.
Bone can be very hard, especially in the cases or Cow and Deer.
H.I. khukuri are not warranted for chopping thru bone.
 
Yeah bone is a hard material. Living calcium, basically a rock. There's not much you want to actually smack against bone.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but khukri are more for general purpose. Brush clearing, splitting small logs or kindling, slowly chopping. You don't want to slam any good knife against anything, it's not a hammer. As for dressing a deer, trying breaking the limb at the joint and then cutting through. Cartilage and connective tissue is a lot easier to deal with then bone.
 
abdelhazred said:
Yeah bone is a hard material. Living calcium, basically a rock. There's not much you want to actually smack against bone.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but khukri are more for general purpose. Brush clearing, splitting small logs or kindling, slowly chopping. You don't want to slam any good knife against anything, it's not a hammer. As for dressing a deer, trying breaking the limb at the joint and then cutting through. Cartilage and connective tissue is a lot easier to deal with then bone.
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You are pretty much correct abdelhazred.
It is better to pry the joints than to chop thru them. Hatchets/Axes will suffer the same damage if used to chop bone.
H.I/ khukuri are made for chopping wood only. Larger khukuri for larger jobs, smaller for smaller jobs. Match your khukuri to the job at hand.
 
As for dressing a deer, trying breaking the limb at the joint and then cutting through. Cartilage and connective tissue is a lot easier to deal with then bone.
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that is generally what i do when i dont have a saw or chopper around. i figured the khukri could take it. apparently incorrectly

anyhow, is there a way to rehab the blade to "rebend" the nicks (since it didnt chip out) or do i just resharpen around them and end up with a partially serrated khuk :)

EDITED TO ADD:

after some reading it looks like a file or stone is the best way to even out the nicks so thats what i did. I'm not here to argue about warranty issues or replacement if the blade is abused but i do have to say its pretty evident that the edge is not all the same hardness. perhaps i dont understand the construction property but my file dug in DEEP along the edge at both 3''-5'' above the handle and at the 2'' of the tip. It skated (as i expected it would) along about 3'' of the belly and barely touched it. I would say that area is clearly much harder than the others (and incidentally not the part that got dented)
 
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Check the link library out (something I continually forget to do myself as a newbie). There's info on the construction etc. of a khukri. It is differentially hardened so that the sweet spot is harder, which is exactly what you found out with your file. I'm sure the more knowledgeable folks here will be through shortly to further shed some light. Hope things work out with your khukri!
 
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Yes, they are differentially hardened to prevent them from being brittle...you want to make contact in the hardened area which you seem to have found with your file. There is a picture depicting the areas in this thread:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/720287-(WiP)-A-kukri-s-quot-working-edges-quot

You could try hammering the bent edges straight before resharpening (I have never tried this) or file out the entire section that is bent (do not overheat the edge or you will destroy the hardening). Hand tools are what I use to avoid heating the edge.
 
Correct bemo!

Only the sweet spot on traditional khukri is hardened. The tip is unhardened to prevent shattering in your face if you should hit something and the rest is unhardened to benefit from the the resilience that 5160 steel provides. All chopping should be done with the sweet spot.
 
perhaps i dont understand the construction property but my file dug in DEEP along the edge at both 3''-5'' above the handle and at the 2'' of the tip. It skated (as i expected it would) along about 3'' of the belly and barely touched it. I would say that area is clearly much harder than the others (and incidentally not the part that got dented)
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I was going to ask if the sweet spot rolled at all. The rest of the edge on a khukuri is sort of there just as a backup, in case you need a longer cutting edge for lighter tasks (the curve is supposed to be great for peeling potatoes). All of your chopping should be with the sweet spot.

Other than that, the WWII model tends to have a very, very thin, almost razor-like edge, with a very acute angle. Really a bad choice for bone. Machetes, cleavers, hatchets, etc., will have a much, much thicker edge. Actually, I've noticed that even katanas have slightly thicker edges than most of the lighter khukuris, though I guess a katana actually is intended to cut through bone. Measured my WWII just for fun... it's 0.15" thick where the edge bevel starts, about 1/2" up from the edge. A very light, <2 pound katana I got, is 0.20" thick at the equivalent spot, also 1/2" from the edge.
 
I have some Khukri's with thick edges (15" Ang Khola with custom edge) that I use for cutting bone like beef and deer and some that I won't touch to bone (Sirupati and WWII). The Spine of most Khukri's will smash though bone really well so thats what I recommend and normally do when I'm not being silly with my Ang Khola's edge.

Years ago I wondered why the spine on most Khukri's is rounded or almost a rounded triangle. Today I feel it's for looks and also for breaking bones. A spine hit from my Ang Khola or 18" WWII is devastating on bone and I'm sure it would be very effective for defensive use when you don't want to sever a limb Breaking the attackers limbs with the spine is going to bring the attack to a quick halt with out much if any blood.

It sounds like the edge rolled which is what it's supposed to do. With the right tools and patience you can probably fit the edge your self. I've done it a few times with a Ball peen hammer and the Chakma that comes with the Khukri.
 
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Reminds me when I didnt realise the wood I was chopping was dead (and therefore frozen in the cold weather). I managed to put a nice dent in my Ang Khola, though it also revealed that I had at least on that stroke chopped about an inch under the sweet spot, causing the blade to roll over instead of chipping.

I just reshaprened the blade, but now it has a noticeable irregularity in the edge, I would advise trying to flatten the metal back to the edge as much as you can before sharpening
P4053119.jpg
 
Yes, the recommended procedure is to hammer the fold back into place and the resharpen.
In the case of chipping this isnt possible, but there is usually enough metal to careflly grind it out and put a new edge on.
 
Guys I'm sorry but it is not normal for a heavy duty knife to chip and just deform while cutting into bone or hard wood. I bought my 1st HI khukuri back in 1991 and have had over 100 different ones over the years. I have had a couple fail like the one mentioned and Bill replaced it as he said the heat treat was bad. If your khukuri is folding and chipping the heat treat is bad. I have used many of mine to chop up and bebone elk, deer and even cut up thin mild steel, sheet metal and wire with no edge damage. If it can't do that without damage the heat threat is bad and should be replaced. Bill told me about the State trooper he knew that used his AK to get to a crash victim by chopping the car up because the jaws of life were to far away. The knife cut through the car and got the person out and the edge had little to no damage. He sent me pictures of it and we talked about it a lot over the phone. This was years before the forum and the internet and we talked about all the crazy shit we did with our khukuries. sounds like some bad QC and heat treat has been slipping by.

God bless you Bill. May you rest in peace.
 
Chopping bone with a kuk that has a fighting blade grind profile(thin,high and sharp)is abuse in spades and heat treat is not at fault here.In fact,I don't think any HI kuk is warranted for chopping bone.If you want to chop through bone, or cars for that matter, I would suggest using the proper tool for the job and a kuk isn't it.
 
well, this is the best i could do. i tried to hammer the bends back out with a ball peen on an anvil got some, but some chipped. so I filed it as flat as possible. this actually looks pretty good compared to before i started working on it. =/

khukri.jpg


as i have said before, i have done this with axes, a tomahawk, and cheap machetes without this happening to the blade. (yes, yes I know axes have much thicker blades but i assure you my hawk and machete do not come close to having the blade thickness this khuk does)

i guess i'm not the only one who thinks the heat treat is not right. anyhow, I understand if you dont want to do anything about it if its against your warranty. wont be buying another though, there are much more durable blades out there - at least moreso than the one I got. It's sad because I really like the idea of the khukri.

anyhow, thanks all for your input.
 
SkaerE said:
well, this is the best i could do. i tried to hammer the bends back out with a ball peen on an anvil got some, but some chipped. so I filed it as flat as possible. this actually looks pretty good compared to before i started working on it. =/

khukri.jpg


as i have said before, i have done this with axes, a tomahawk, and cheap machetes without this happening to the blade. (yes, yes I know axes have much thicker blades but i assure you my hawk and machete do not come close to having the blade thickness this khuk does)

i guess i'm not the only one who thinks the heat treat is not right. anyhow, I understand if you dont want to do anything about it if its against your warranty. wont be buying another though, there are much more durable blades out there - at least moreso than the one I got. It's sad because I really like the idea of the khukri.

anyhow, thanks all for your input.
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i dont have the best knowledge on khukris, but it looks like most the damage was done right outside the sweetspot of the khukri which is got a softer heat treat.
 
that is true but it bent at the sweet spot as well, not nearly as large but certainly bent. I think that area returned to flat better than the others.

hey, at least now i can use it as a saw too. ;)
 
SkagSig40 said:
Guys I'm sorry but it is not normal for a heavy duty knife to chip and just deform while cutting into bone or hard wood. .
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at least in my post I wasnt mentioning hard wood, but frozen wood which has similar properties to concrete, as in is even harder on a blade than chopping into a car, the fact that the blade didn't shatter and only deformed ouside the sweet spot is a testiment to the quality of the blade and its heat treat
SkaerE said:
i assure you my hawk and machete do not come close to having the blade thickness this khuk does.
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they wern't talking about blade thickness but EDGE thickness, compare the angles of grind, how thick is the khukuri a couple mm from the edge compared to how thick the Machete is a couple mm from the edge, Ill bet that the machete is twice as thick at this point, the WWII is known for having a fine edge

odds are if you chopped at the sweet spot the blade would have been fine, as thats what its designed to do, but chopping through bone is still a torture test for ANY blade
 
Some devious person hid an 50 year old Iron cut nail in a tree I was chopping with my BAS. Chipped the edge a couple of times before I saw it and stopped. Steeled the edge and a few sharpenings later it's a lot less noticeable. Did not hinder performance at all. Adds character to the blade. I'm absolutely not planning on chopping up a car with my Khukuri, unless of course I had to. I have a DeWalt saw for bones. Right tool for the right job. Stick with wood. Preferably free of Iron Cut Nails embedded from 50 years ago by some devious person.
 
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