Keeping your khukuri sharp!!!! Long post.

Gee, Tom I don`t know what you use your kuks for, but that is over kill for me.
I treat `em like an axe, which some are.
I use a mill bastard to shape the convex edge, same as an axe.
If I have nothing better to do, I`ll polish it with a 14" oval stone.
It will chop just fine without the stone touch.
In my wildest dreams, I never considered stropping or shaving with a kuk.
I don`t use my belt sander either.
Mine are all polished now.
I confess; I put a hard Arkansaw to Hanuman
, the Sirupatis and some of my seldom users.
The 20" AK will never see a stone all summer.
Steeling will save you a lot of work.
I use an old 14" German stag handled steel. It is a lot easier than the small chakmas and safer.
It does not have a guard so, if I think of it, I wear my cop kevlar glove. I haven`t cut it yet. The new Spectras are supposed to be better.
I use the standard butcher steel method.
But. if that is what you have....

Come summer, it is the file for them.
It`s not like we are going to run out of steel.
What are you using these things for?
I like to shave with a straight razor when I have the time to treat my self. I inherited a few, and I had DOVO make me a gold inlay one in Germany.
Some neat mugs came down to me as well.
My Great uncles would leave them at the barber shop, so they are marked.
I have a few razor strops. One is a heavy duty that I ordered.
The canvas is charged. The leather just oiled.
I think that I know what I am talking about here.

[This message has been edited by FNG (edited 02-16-2001).]

[This message has been edited by FNG (edited 02-16-2001).]
 
:
Daniel for one thing I just like my khukuri's as sharp as possible and I have lots of time and it's something I enjoy doing.
smile.gif

And for me personally I prefer an axe to have a highly polished edge to prevent chipping, something I learned from my dad.
He taught me that a properly hardened axe should be very hard, just _barely fileable_ with a brand new quality file.
And that if the file marks were polished out the edge was much less apt to chip since the file marks weakened the edge. What we know as stress risers today.
It wouldn't be much of an issue if the sweet spot of the khukuri could be filed to sharpness.
The only ones I have that are fileable are my village models and some of those are _just barely_ fileable, it takes a stone or diamond hone to sharpen all of my H.I.model's sweet spot.
And some like my 18"AK and YCS are best stoned with diamond hones since they are very hard.
And once sharpened like this I think it's easier to maintain the edge.

I agree that steeling will save a lot of work, it also saves a lot of steel.

And I believe you're right about the canvas and leather strops.
If I could find some of the heavy material that's on a regular razor strop I would glue some on a piece of wood like the leather strops I made. I believe it would hold the charging media better and make it more aggressive.
I like the non-flexible strops I made because you can either pull a knife along them or you can push the strop along the edge of the knife, giving much better control I think.

As far as use....Some are just used for whatever purpose, mostly the villagers.
I use different ones to rough out handles for other khukuris and other items. I sometimes use a rubber or rawhide mallet on the spine to give me better control over the cut.
Some of the smaller ones I use for
a bit of finish carving.
And they make one helluva draw knife!!!
smile.gif

Hopefully later in the year I will be able to finish out a couple of self bows from the Osage Orange I have. My khukuris will help me a great deal with that. They make a pretty awesome scraper as well.YMMV.

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>>>>---Yvsa-G@WebTV.net---->®

"VEGETARIAN".............
Indin word for lousy hunter.
 
We find no fault in what you say Tom.
That degree of maintainance is not nesessary for us when using.
The stress scratch theory is well known in gun springs. We polish them length wise to avoid that and relieve stress.
However, you are not going to break a HI kuk.
Cliff tried.
We are working on a Mod. 65 3" Treas. issue now. We have the Wolff springs and are cutting the forcing cone to 11 degrees and chamfering the cylinder with the same tool for speed loaders.
It is timed ok.
The SA trigger is good.
DA is not.
A lot of that will go away with polishing the rebound slide and the frame recess and the bosses on the trigger and hammer.

The DA fly needs a stone to change the angle.
No shims are needed to center parts.
Not a bad piece really.
Certainly fixable.
The kuks are the way we want them.
We never wore that weapon , prefering the 1911 or the Mod. 29.
We had some time and it is not cool to own a weapon that is not perfect.
The IWB Safariland holster that came with it is very comfortable.
We put a Tyler T Grip on it.
What does this have to do with Khukuries, everything!
As you think highly of, and we respect your opinion, we will buy a DMT hone.
Who is a good source?
We have a EZY Lap diamond steel which has worked well for years.
It cuts MD`s ceramics.
It sounds as though one would want two; in different grades.

[This message has been edited by Warrior 11 (edited 02-18-2001).]
 
I love diamond for a fine grit hone; it cuts so much faster and lasts so well it's well worth the money.

Diamond is not so great for coarse grits, though. You can't use as much pressure or you'll break the diamonds or break them out of the matrix so diamond isn't so fast in coarse grits; you can probably cut faster with a lot of pressure on a silicon carbide stone though of course it's more effort.

I seldom use a coarse stone anyway, only when I buy a new knife or decide to reshape an old one or when I sharpen somebody else's (I never let mine get dull enough to need a coarse stone), so I'm satisfied with silicon carbide for my coarse grit.

A coarse silicon carbide and medium and fine diamond hones make a good set -- with your strop, of course. If short of buck$ get a silicon carbide medium but get a fine diamond hone even if it cuts into your beer budget; diamond makes a much better fine hone.

I usually don't polish the edge of a chopping tool as much as a cutting tool -- I think it does help but you reach the point of diminishing returns sooner for chopping. A coarse edge doesn't cause the knife to break in half like a revolver mainspring with filemarks on it -- the blade as a whole isn't stressed that much. It's just that the little "teeth" (really more like waves) in the edge tend to break off so the edge dulls faster than a polished edge.

I bought my hones locally so I don't know what's the best place to get them on the net.


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-Cougar :{)
Use of Weapons
 
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