So roughly 3-4 weeks ago I received my 13 inch kailash kukri with rosewood handle and brass hardware with a western leather sheath along with a karda and chakmak. Overall my experience with this kukri has been outstanding. It arrived fairly sharp and I took it to the woods to try out. I cut down a few small trees and cleared some brush and it performed great. I then took it and cut down a hard wood standing dead tree in my backyard, I would say roughly 8-10 inches in diameter. It performed similarly to a hatchet and while I wouldn’t want to use it to cut down multiple trees this size it works well. There were no rolls and I abused the tip and it didn’t break, (the tip did bend ever so slightly when I accidentally hit it against my hunting stand ladder but that was full force and I even abused the tip further and no damage occurred) If I had to do it over again I would spring for the micarta handle as I noticed the rosewood tends to slip around a little, however this was an easy fix as I wrapped it up in howies hockey tape and it has a lot more grip. Another thing I would recommend is going with an 11 inch blade instead of a 13 inch as the 13 is harder to use for smaller tasks. I can not recommend this company enough, their customer service is top notch and they even modified my order a couple of times for me when I changed my mind on what I wanted. The worst part about buying from kailash is having to wait to receive it but it is well worth the wait to get a handmade knife made by true craftsmen. Also I want to add the tip deflection was my fault and doesn’t reflect on their work.
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Kailash panawal review
- Thread starter dogdad123
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From what I understand all their kukris are oil quenched. And if I’m not mistaken which I could be I think think they are the only traditional kukri makers to do that. In my opinion they are the very best at what they do.
Personally I’d recommend it. I know I sound like a fanboy but ever since I got this thing I hate to put it down, it handles good, chops good and looks good. It also takes a lot of abuse. Kailash is easily one of the most underrated knife makers out there. I just wish I had enough time and money to buy and use every knife on their website.
Kailash Blades
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Thanks a bunch for the review! The panawal is a great worker for sure and has been consistently popular over the years for good reason. It's tough, versatile and I also feel that the straighter blade profile is a little simpler to use for those coming from western blades. I hear you on the preference for 11" for finer tasks. Oftentimes when I'm using an 11" though I end up missing the power of the 13! That's the way it goes with knives sometimes.
IF you find that the hockey tape adds a bit too much bulk you could consider roughing up the rosewood with some coarse grit sandpaper. A little bit of fuzziness does wonders sometimes!
Yep all of our knives are oil quenched unless a traditional teapot quench is specifically requested by the customer. It makes a huge difference to the overall performance of the steel.
I am not sure if any other makers are oil quenching. I have seen claims online that some makers are oil quenching but this information may not be accurate. We've heard from smiths that other makers have tried it but they experienced a lot of warping, cracking etc in the process as well as increased difficulty grinding and sharpening etc. It's a much less forgiving process that requires a greater level of control in a lot of other areas too. I think it's very possible that these makers made the jump across to oil quenching, had a bad time and then swapped back but haven't updated the website. The traditional teapot method has no tempering step which begs the question- if they are oil quenching are they tempering also? Because I'd rather take an untempered teapot blade than an untempered oil quenched blade any day of the week.
IF you find that the hockey tape adds a bit too much bulk you could consider roughing up the rosewood with some coarse grit sandpaper. A little bit of fuzziness does wonders sometimes!
Yep all of our knives are oil quenched unless a traditional teapot quench is specifically requested by the customer. It makes a huge difference to the overall performance of the steel.
I am not sure if any other makers are oil quenching. I have seen claims online that some makers are oil quenching but this information may not be accurate. We've heard from smiths that other makers have tried it but they experienced a lot of warping, cracking etc in the process as well as increased difficulty grinding and sharpening etc. It's a much less forgiving process that requires a greater level of control in a lot of other areas too. I think it's very possible that these makers made the jump across to oil quenching, had a bad time and then swapped back but haven't updated the website. The traditional teapot method has no tempering step which begs the question- if they are oil quenching are they tempering also? Because I'd rather take an untempered teapot blade than an untempered oil quenched blade any day of the week.
oldmanwilly
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Could you elaborate on the highlighted bit? Would an untempered oil-quenched blade be more brittle?
In contrast, would the untempered teapot-quenched blade be more soft?
Kailash Blades
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Sure- Traditional teapot quenching involves "painting" on hardness with poured water. This allows the user to dictate which parts of the steel are hard and how hard the hardened parts are. Typically the belly is made the hardest and the waist/tip are made softer. The spine and body are left almost completely unhardened. This is a beautiful process but it is not without issues. It does not cool the metal very quickly due to the lack of thermal mass of the small poured water volume, the high thermal mass of the steel and steam/vapour jacket effects. This is okay with 5160 which is very easy to harden (high hardenability) but does not lend itself well to other common steels. These blades are left untempered so if the steel is left too soft it will dent and roll and not hold an edge well. If it left too hard it can chip, crack or shatter. It is not particularly controlled and it's easy to overshoot or undershoot hardness and not land in this "goldilocks hardness".
By contrast oil quenching is a very intense form of hardening. Actual quenching oil like we use is designed to avoid vapour jacket effects and so cools rapidly and consistently. The container of oil has a high thermal mass as there is a lot of it. Straight out of quench an oil quenched blade is significantly harder than what is achieved through teapot quenching. It is this intense cooling that can cause cracking and warping if not properly controlled. The blade at this stage is very hard and very brittle. It will shatter if used to pry and is at high risk of catastrophic failure if used to chop. Luckily though we remedy this through tempering. Tempering trades a small amount of hardness to gain back a huge amount of toughness. The resultant tempered oil quenched blade is generally much harder than a teapot quenched blade but with similar toughness. If the teapot blade was quenched to the same hardness as the final oil quenched blade it would be outside the goldilocks zone and brittle. This is the key- oil quenching and tempering allows for steel with a higher "Hardness/Toughness Balance" than the teapot blade.
In a chopping blade this gives "apex stability" which hold up better to impacts. With matching geometry the oil quenched edge will be much less prone to denting, rolling, warping than the teapot edge. You can also choose to go to a thinner geometry which will give the same durability as the previously mentioned thicker teapot edge but with lower cutting resistance, higher "keenness" while holding sharpness longer. This is what we tend to do.
In actual application we believe that our steel is less likely to crack and chip than a traditional quench also. This is because we feel that the poor controllability of traditional HT methods leads to worse microstructure than expected (large grains, internal stresses) and that we manage these factors well within our workshop.
By contrast oil quenching is a very intense form of hardening. Actual quenching oil like we use is designed to avoid vapour jacket effects and so cools rapidly and consistently. The container of oil has a high thermal mass as there is a lot of it. Straight out of quench an oil quenched blade is significantly harder than what is achieved through teapot quenching. It is this intense cooling that can cause cracking and warping if not properly controlled. The blade at this stage is very hard and very brittle. It will shatter if used to pry and is at high risk of catastrophic failure if used to chop. Luckily though we remedy this through tempering. Tempering trades a small amount of hardness to gain back a huge amount of toughness. The resultant tempered oil quenched blade is generally much harder than a teapot quenched blade but with similar toughness. If the teapot blade was quenched to the same hardness as the final oil quenched blade it would be outside the goldilocks zone and brittle. This is the key- oil quenching and tempering allows for steel with a higher "Hardness/Toughness Balance" than the teapot blade.
In a chopping blade this gives "apex stability" which hold up better to impacts. With matching geometry the oil quenched edge will be much less prone to denting, rolling, warping than the teapot edge. You can also choose to go to a thinner geometry which will give the same durability as the previously mentioned thicker teapot edge but with lower cutting resistance, higher "keenness" while holding sharpness longer. This is what we tend to do.
In actual application we believe that our steel is less likely to crack and chip than a traditional quench also. This is because we feel that the poor controllability of traditional HT methods leads to worse microstructure than expected (large grains, internal stresses) and that we manage these factors well within our workshop.
oldmanwilly
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That was more thorough than I could have hoped for. Thank you for taking the time to explain the difference. I will agree that your blades are very tough yet hold their edges well. Whatever your smiths are doing, they are doing it right.
Kailash Blades
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That's no worries at all- Glad to have the opportunity to share knowledge to others as it has been shared with me. We're still introducingnew processes to improve HT and geometry every now and again- the gap between our current work and work from say 8 years ago is widening as is the gap between our current work and that of other makers. If they put their mind to it I'm sure they can catch up in no time, it's just a matter of making it a priority.