John, I just sent you another long email with my impressions, thoughts and a comparison of pics of my old M43... I'm not going to add it all here, but I'll sum up my thoughts on the edge below:
jdk1's M43 feels good in hand. Handle is about 1" to 1.5" longer then the original HI M43 and has the newer Habaka (how's it spelt?) style bolster. Bolsters IMO are personal preference and I lean towards favoring the new style. I have medium width palms, with long fingers. Thick handles don't bother me. The handle isn't thick, but it is long for the style. IMO this style handle should be about 1" shorter. Let me explain; There is a gentle swell like a palm swell below the bolster which feels great on my palm. But when my hand is there it feels like something is missing near my pinky, like the bell should be closer. If I move to where my pinky is comfortable next to the bell, my palm isn't as comfy. I feel that the handle could be at the very least 1/2" shorter and still be comfortable for people with large palms.
The Balance is good, it is light and fast in my hand. Which is odd because according to my postage scale it weights 1 pound 15.8 onces. It's 2 pounds, but feels light almost as light as my 20" Sirupati which weights 1.5 pounds. When I swing it over 95% of the time the Khukri hits wood at the sweet spot. This Khukri feels amazing in hand. Feels like it could do equally well at a Wood/brush tool or a Battle blade.
Now we get to the information that I'm sure everyone has been waiting for, the Edge. The temper is good, but the edge at the sweet spot is to thin, thin like you would expect from a 16" Gelbu special which is a light fast thin Khukri for brush or fleshy non or soft armored targets. The edge is thicker at the tip and along the recurve then at the sweet spot. Very odd. The Tip is IMO the correct thickness, for this type of Khukri, it's intended use and heritage, same with the Recurve. Why the Beer mug Kami on an apprentice/assistant ground the sweet spot so thin, I will never know. As I said earlier, when swinging the Khukri I naturally hit with the sweet spot. Get this, The first few swings that I made into some 4x4 posts, I wasn't trying to get the blade to hit at any given point. I wanted to see where the blade naturally hit, turns out it was the sweet spot. That was yesterday afternoon. This morning is when I looked over the edge closely and noticed that the thinnest part is the sweet spot.
If the recurve would have been this thin and the edge as thick as the recurve, a wavy edge would not have been a problem. Years ago I had a 16" Gelbu Special made by one of the KNN's (Kami with no name) the edge was hollow forged on the thin side. It was amazing when it came to thin green branches and brush. Technique didn't matter, it would slice though soft stuff like a knife though butter. But when it came to chopping hard stuff like Cedar or bone (yes, I tested it on some cow bones) it dented or waved a little. After the tests, I pounded the blade straight with a ball peen hammer and never did them again. Sold it along with other blades to pay for schooling or I'd still have it. At least I remember what happened back then 10 years ago. This M43 deforms the same way in the sweet spot. To thin at the critical spot.
Is the Khukri Salvageable, Heck Yes!! My hope is that I can grind the edge down enough so that the sweet spot is thick and strong with out taking to much steel off or hurting the great balance and swing that the Khukri has. Will do what I can, but it's going to take time so that I do it correctly with out hurting the temper and keep the lines looking good.
. I'll put a post up one day about my stupidity with this incident...
