I must be nuts

Bruce Bump

Bruce Bump

Joined
Dec 2, 1999
Messages
9,910
I am wanting to make a Kris blade. I know nothing about them, I may not have even spelled it right. Could someone give me some history and even a picture of what one looks like? You know what Im talking about... the knife with the blade that curves back and forth. All the ones Ive seen are about $14.95 from pakistan. There must be some custom ones out there. Thanks, Bruce B
 
the kris of indo-malay origin were forged. i dont know how they did that but i have made a few by stock removal, profile a dagger type bladle the cut in alternating circles with say a 5" wheel. the by vertical flat grinding, meaning you feed the blade lenth ways on to the same diameter wheel. this is how you get the symetrical curved grind line in the blade. do it one quarter at a time. sorry no pic's of mine but you reminded me that i have one that i was making from a anneled nichoson file that needs finising. realy there are fun to make but i have'nt gotten very many calls for one. there one heck of a slasher/fighter. hope this helps.
 
Hey Bruce, check out Wayne Goddard's book "The $50.00 Knife Shop". There is a chapter on forging kriss blades and he pretty much does it like the Malaysian tribal smiths I saw on a web site (most of them have pretty crude set ups but produce sophisticated blades). These smiths use the modified head of a large sledge hammer or maul (minus it's handle) as the forming anvil. It is placed with the eye up (the walls on either side of the eye need to be well rounded also) and using a rounded hammer that matches the desired curve they deform the hot steel down into the eye. It looks like the real trick is forging the bevels on the sucker after the curves are set! Wayne's book has some good diagrams on how to aproach this type of wavy blade. It will be a while before I attempt this blade form!!!
 
Thanks guys for the responses. I have the steel already made, its a mosaic pattern so I will need to form the curves hot so the pattern will have the same curves. The trick as I see it is bending the hot flat steel. How am I going to make the bends? The only thing I can think of doing is to make some kind of pressing form and use my press. It will take some time to make the form. Keep talking to me. Bruce B
 
Bruce,check out The Master Bladesmith by Hrisoulas he outlines a procedure for bending flame blades useing bending forks dont know if this would work for you though.I'm currently forging a kukri,quite a lesson in forging for a beginning smith.Was only doing stock removal and a few forged blades but this forum has renewed my intrest in carbon steel blades....
 
George, who let you out of your cage? By the way, its not jail...its prison. Im getting pretty popular teaching the inmates how to make a better shank.

Troyo and Crayola, Thanks for the links. Now Im confused about the spelling, is it Keris or Kris? There is some good info in that Pauls Keris page.

I made a set of forming plates today and hope to try them out tomarrow. If they work I should be able to press the waves in hot with the hydraulic press. I have 3 days into this blade so far, I hope it turns out.
 
Keris or Kris? Khukuri or kukri? bruce Bumb or Crazy Man? There are several accepted spellings :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top