Karda sharpening

Maqua

Maqua

Joined
Jan 21, 2005
Messages
2,396
I was bored so I ran my karda over a Norton India stone a few times and then stropped it on the back of a legal pad loaded with flexcut. Good Lord. :eek: It's now the sharpest knife I own! Does anybody know if these things are heat treated to any extent, or just plain ol' spring temper?
 
The ones of mine that I've bothered to check seem to run closer to completely annealed than spring temper. They hardly seem hardened at all. They also tend not to spark very much on the belt grinder, which worries me far more than their hardness does.

Project for another time: attempt to re-heat treat the bare karda blades I have laying around from completed handle transplant projects.
 
Sarge said he had tried to heat treat a karda once, but it was mild steel. I always remove the karda from my rig for a few reasons. It thins the rig to remove those pouches. That makes the whole rig more carryable. Also, since the thing is mild steel, what is the point. I carry a pocket knife, so what do I need a little mild steel blade for? And lastly, the tang on those things doesn't go very far into the handle, and the handle isn't shaped to support the tang during a cut. So I just don't get peoples facination with kardas.

Exception, of course, are aftermarket kardas such as the Kumar Karda, or Dan Koster's stuff. Obviously.
 
Try the 100 year old ones Andy, ;) Even actualy even the 70 year old ones!

I guess the quality went down as soon as evry Gurkha was issued a clasp knife, Nepal is still full of them. {WW1 & WW2 clasp knives.}

Spiral
 
So you're saying they don't make em like they used to??? Hmmmm
 
I've always found the kardas to be pretty handy. Some are harder than others though. I haven't put them to really hard use; I figure that's what the khukuri is for.
 
My kardas are always remarkably thick for their size ... making actual use a bit problematic even if they'd keep an edge. I mean, I can't cut an apple in half with a knife with less than a 3" blade, but I can split it.

I'm thinking that I might grind a whole lot of metal off one of my kardas, to improve functionality. The sparks will tell me soon enough if the steel's high enough carbon to take a decent temper.
 
aproy1101 said:
So you're saying they don't make em like they used to??? Hmmmm
Click to expand...


Well in those days army issue kit was useable.

The were forged & tempered , will hold an edge & strike a spark, the soldiers & village men needed them to work.

Today they are generaly just a visual nod at the old tradition even on the ones the army buy.

Spiral
 
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