- Joined
- Mar 26, 2002
- Messages
- 2,845
Well, as many a mother has said "You've done it now!"
I may have the dubious distinction of being the first person to kill a Chiruwas AK. I'd like to say it met its end hacking through tank armor, or prying boulders off a trapped child, but the reality was far less dramatic.
I was cutting up a wind-fallen elm branch. Most of the elms around my house are half dead, and this branch had been dead and dried for maybe a decade. No problem lopping off a dozen or so 1-2" limbs . Most of them were pretty brittle - cut halfway through, and snapped off the rest of the way. Then I decided to chop the main branch - 4-5" diameter, slightly more solid, but not incredibly dense. On the first chop, I thought I detected something rattling - the brass bolster is a little loose, and I thought that's what it was. A few more chops, strong, but not full force, and the rattle seemed to come and go. Then, blade met wood, and I had two pieces! Total blade failure, just in front (toward the tip of the blade) of the downward protrusion in the cho. The break runs very nearly perpendicular to the spine, and is very square. Imagine laying a khuk on its side, and slicing straight down througth the cho.
This was a Bura AK, shipped about 6 months ago - either a blem or a PGA, I don't recall which. I was a little suspicious about it because of the edge - grinding on the final edge looked a little rushed. I don't know if failure was due to rushed production, but it's possible. Not being a smith, or knowing much at all about metal, the break looks like a fatigue problem - chopping with an over-hardened blade, or perhaps some underlying problem with the original spring. The fractured surfaces look almost crystalline. Before this weekend, I'd used the blade about a dozen times, all for similar tasks, and nothing that I'd consider "extreme abuse".
On the bright side, the failure was pretty uneventful - there were no heavy, sharp pieces of metal flying around. Just a chop, and the front fell off. Had I been in a survival situation, there is more than enough blade to make a functional handle and re-haft it. In a self-defense situation, I think the knife would've held up enough to get me out of a jam - though I'm glad I didn't test that theory. Actually, my first thoughts were about Bura himself. Considering his convalecent state, it would be an eerie coincidence if the knife and its smith went down in the same blow. Fortunately, it doesn't looks like that's the case. I just hope Bura gets back in steel-pounding form soon. I still have a pesky branch in my yard
I may have the dubious distinction of being the first person to kill a Chiruwas AK. I'd like to say it met its end hacking through tank armor, or prying boulders off a trapped child, but the reality was far less dramatic.
I was cutting up a wind-fallen elm branch. Most of the elms around my house are half dead, and this branch had been dead and dried for maybe a decade. No problem lopping off a dozen or so 1-2" limbs . Most of them were pretty brittle - cut halfway through, and snapped off the rest of the way. Then I decided to chop the main branch - 4-5" diameter, slightly more solid, but not incredibly dense. On the first chop, I thought I detected something rattling - the brass bolster is a little loose, and I thought that's what it was. A few more chops, strong, but not full force, and the rattle seemed to come and go. Then, blade met wood, and I had two pieces! Total blade failure, just in front (toward the tip of the blade) of the downward protrusion in the cho. The break runs very nearly perpendicular to the spine, and is very square. Imagine laying a khuk on its side, and slicing straight down througth the cho.
This was a Bura AK, shipped about 6 months ago - either a blem or a PGA, I don't recall which. I was a little suspicious about it because of the edge - grinding on the final edge looked a little rushed. I don't know if failure was due to rushed production, but it's possible. Not being a smith, or knowing much at all about metal, the break looks like a fatigue problem - chopping with an over-hardened blade, or perhaps some underlying problem with the original spring. The fractured surfaces look almost crystalline. Before this weekend, I'd used the blade about a dozen times, all for similar tasks, and nothing that I'd consider "extreme abuse".
On the bright side, the failure was pretty uneventful - there were no heavy, sharp pieces of metal flying around. Just a chop, and the front fell off. Had I been in a survival situation, there is more than enough blade to make a functional handle and re-haft it. In a self-defense situation, I think the knife would've held up enough to get me out of a jam - though I'm glad I didn't test that theory. Actually, my first thoughts were about Bura himself. Considering his convalecent state, it would be an eerie coincidence if the knife and its smith went down in the same blow. Fortunately, it doesn't looks like that's the case. I just hope Bura gets back in steel-pounding form soon. I still have a pesky branch in my yard
