Kukri damaged, help please

Z

Zanuha

Joined
Sep 27, 2010
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Many months back, I was chopping some small, unsightly trees at my summer cottage. I, being unaware of the right way to chop with a kukri, chopped with the tip section of the blade, and accidentally hit a rock. The edge rolled, and I spent hours with the karda, sandpaper, a file and a dremel, trying to repair it. The edge looks kind of better now, but it still has a small rolled section and lots of crappy grind marks.
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Also, kukri pr0nz. :jerkit:

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By the way, I don't have a strop, if one is necessary to repair this, could I use a leather belt and metal polish?
 
Use a file to smooth it out, then re-bevel the edge. I wouldn't be concerned about the 'damage' -- it's pretty normal if you're going to use the kukri, and they're made to take abuse.
 
I think you need to finish repairing the edge before you move to polishing the bevel. If you continue with the file (until the nicks and rolls are removed), then various grits of wet/dry sand paper (coarse to fine), and then you can consider polishing the bevel.
 
ChapmanPreferred said:
I think you need to finish repairing the edge before you move to polishing the bevel. If you continue with the file (until the nicks and rolls are removed), then various grits of wet/dry sand paper (coarse to fine), and then you can consider polishing the bevel.
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OK, I'm filing it with my Leatherman Blast right now. What grits do you think are best, and are the grit values international? How would I polish the bevel, just regular metal polish?
 
Convex right?


If so I wouldn't even worry about the file and just start with some 120 grit sandpaper.

KEEP THE DREMEL AWAY FROM YOUR KNIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I also wouldn't work the front section too much, its easy to mess up the alignment of the edge by removing too much metal in one spot.
 
knifenut1013 said:
Convex right?


If so I wouldn't even worry about the file and just start with some 120 grit sandpaper.

KEEP THE DREMEL AWAY FROM YOUR KNIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I also wouldn't work the front section too much, its easy to mess up the alignment of the edge by removing too much metal in one spot.
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Yeah, using the dremel was pretty stupid. Could I get just 120 and something really fine (Such as?) and polish the rest of the way? Also, can I use sandpaper intended for wood, and when sanding, I can just sand the front section, right?
The filing is pretty much done, the grind is smooth now, still a few small bumps in the very edge, but they are so small that I'd need to reprofile the edge and you can't see them if you're more than a foot away from it.
 
Can you get 3M wet/dry? like found in auto parts stores?

Wood grade paper won't work.
 
The hardware store didn't have metal sandpaper, but just like you said, the car parts store had some. I bought some 400 and 800 grit wet sandpaper for 2 bucks, and having some money for impulse purchases, I bought a cheap camp light for 8 bucks. It already almost broke on me twice. Getting to work on the khuk now.
 
So. I sanded the blade with 800-grit wet paper, sharpened the blade with the karda, scrubbed the entire knife with lighter fluid to clean the engravings, polished the blade and the brass bits and oiled the whole thing with MPL-20.
You can still see some scratch marks from my cameras epicly well focused pics and if you look close enough, but this is good enough for me. I can still sand it some more if I want since I just used a little strip of sandpaper, but this is good for now.
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Thanks everyone. :)
 
Sorry I did not know you were convexing the edge bevel. knifenut is wise.

I'm glad that your kukri is repaired enough for now!
 
Sorry to hear about your khukuri. But I congratulate you on having the fortitude to use such a beautiful knife.
 
kamagong said:
Sorry to hear about your khukuri. But I congratulate you on having the fortitude to use such a beautiful knife.
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Thanks, I did buy it for its work value, I got the engraved one because I wanted a beautiful and usable kukri.
This was actually a pretty nice experience, it taught me to repair blades and to use my tools carefully.
 
No sandpaper in Finland? MIRKA "Bulldog" is probably my favourite brand and they are made in Finland.
 
tabeeb762 said:
No sandpaper in Finland? MIRKA "Bulldog" is probably my favourite brand and they are made in Finland.
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When did I say I couldn't find sandpaper? The hardware store didn't have METAl sandpaper, the car parts store did.
 
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