Kumar Karda

OK, I got a Kumar Karda in on friday.
It's like the one from the DOTD a few days back with the carved handle and 14" overall length.

First, the bad.
It came anything but sharp, it was a butterknife. The edge also was not straight. It took several hours with a file, coarse and fine diamond stones and a hard Arkansas stone to get it sharp. I gave it a Scandi grind, meaning the primary bevel goes fromt he start of the bevel to the edge. No secondary bevel, no convex grind.

OK, no big deal, it's all good now.

The good.
The thing is a monster.
Someone described them as a short tarwar, and that's exactly what it feels like. It's 14" overall, with 9" of blade. The blade is .260" thick.
The handle engraving is both beautiful and comfortable. it doesn't bite into the hand, but won't let it slip, either. It almost feels like carved soap in texture (but again, not slippery).

I finally got out a couple hours ago to try it out. WOW, what a monster! It cleanly cut oak branches up to 1/2" thick with a single, not very hard, strike. 3/4" thick branches took 3 strikes. Not to be left out, the soft vegetation got it next (with no touchup of the blade). Thin viny vegetation required a faily good swing if I tried to cut it unsupported. This is expected due to the thickness of the blade. Holding one end of the vines, the weight of the blade was enough to cleanly cut it. Palmettos were a shock. The spiny stalk usually takes a fairly hard swing from my machete to cut through in one strike. A mere flick of the wrist and the KK went through. Clean cut, not breaking the stalk, but a very precise cut. That's not holding onto the branch, and cutting towards the root, which if anything, should tend to deflect, rather than cut it. Nope, little flick and it's gone.

Now the real test: flesh.
I carved up my roast beast with it. Push cut, draw cut, no problem. Took a little force due to the thickness of the blade and the fact that it's not a flat grind, but still far easier than the serrated blades a lot of people use, and only a bit more difficult than a butcher knife. I think this will make an excellent large game dressing/butchering blade.

Oh, yes, and thsi blade is blessed, as I cut my hand quite well with it while sharpening it. I know I have it sharp as I had no idea I had cutmyself until I wondered where the blood dripping on my leg was coming from. . .

The sheath is a pouch type and although it has no retention mechanism, it holds the blade well. I had to hold it upside down and give it a good shake to get the knife to fall out.

Overall I am very pleased. If you've been thinking of getting one of these, do it.