My Tarwar Reeks of Gear Oil

M

munk

Joined
Mar 22, 2002
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I don't remember a gear oil blade treatment on any of my khuks, but I've seen two Tarwars now and they both were splashed with wonderful gear oil.

It is an unmistable odor. Perhaps owing to the higher dollar of a sword vs a khuk, or just something about swords, or packing swords I don't know about, the Kamis put extra protection on.

I think Buffalo lard would smell better.

I cleaned it of course, many times, but the oil is in the wood inside the scabbard, and may have penetrated the Laha at the bolster, so the faint tinge is still there.

It's getting gradually weaker.

Not a very earth shattering event, but thought I'd throw it out there.

(It wouldn't be advisable to use this as a murder weapon. I know those wily scientists would find traces of the oil in the victim's wounds and follow that back to HI, and then the munk compound.)



munk
 
The smell of gear oil is a pretty powerful stink. My advice is to just send it off. Just get it away...as far as you can to get that smell out of your nose. Indiana sound just about far enough away, the southern part. It's way down in a holler where the muddy Ohio flows. You won't be bothered by it anymore. The layer of ozone will keep it trapped. Because, you know, gear oil is forever:)
Don't mind me, i'm just envious of your tarwar:D

Jake
 
Munk,
I can relate to that stink. I am around lots of rotten smelling lubes at work. Old rancid turbin oil is aweful too!
I h:D ave found that my mineral/clove oil mix covers or gets rid of all other smells. It is the clove oil that does it. Smells great. As a matter of fact when I coat ALL of my carbon steel blades my whole house smells of it for a day or so.
 
Good advice, uh, about the cloves anyway... Steely, you can come up here to visit the compound and smell the tarwar whenever you like. I'll even pick you up from the Billings Airport.

munk
 
My antler handled M43 came with the stuff as well. After cleaning it about 10 times the smells has gone down some, but its still bad.
 
i think what munk is trying to say is:
"my tarwar brings all the girls to the yard, it's sharper, it's smellier than yours"

or something like thike that :)

bladite
 
Mine reeked of lemon juice earlier today when I etched it.

Adios, mirror finish. Hello, satisfactory hamon-line. Didn't take a picture 'cause it looked like a disaster- juice lines, black spots and instant pre-rust. Hamon was 3/4 of the blade length.

You need the licorice-y smell of Ballistol® to permeate everything- as it does here. I draw the line at a Ballistol® car air freshener. I forget if I drank it :eek: but I know I've put it on cuts, too.


Mike
 
I stained my tarwar and had mixed results. I figure the learning curve. Dave Rishar told me the blade had to be absolutely free of all oil and contaminents. I thought it was. Sometimes I'd get some nice blue, and gold; but never consistent enough. I now have a grey sword.

suggestions? Sand off the grey and start again?


munk
 
The makers I saw in Dharan cover all thier export kukri with gear oil.

seemed a strange choice to me, but I guess its reliable.

Spiral
 
spiraltwista said:
The makers I saw in Dharan cover all thier export kukri with gear oil.

seemed a strange choice to me, but I guess its reliable.

Spiral
Click to expand...

you use what you can get ... especially if it's free. bacon dripping work too i'm sure, but i wouldn't want to be around that a few months down the road ;)

bladite
 
munk said:
I stained my tarwar and had mixed results. I figure the learning curve. Dave Rishar told me the blade had to be absolutely free of all oil and contaminents. I thought it was. Sometimes I'd get some nice blue, and gold; but never consistent enough. I now have a grey sword.

suggestions? Sand off the grey and start again?
Click to expand...

Your call. You can remove the patina through various means and start over, or you could try etching with something more powerful and consistant right over what's there. Sometimes that works.

The beauty here is that no matter how badly one screws up an etch job, it's relatively easy to try it again.

For the record, the larger the blade, the more difficult it is to get a consistant etch. If you can do a sword, knives and khukuris are easy by comparison.
 
50% of my khukuries smell of rancid fat :)

dont know exactly why, but even after basically scrubbing them with balistol they still have the smell on them...


maybe i'll try using olive oil and then ballistol after wiping it off... (they say an old home remedy for body odor is using olive oil, then wiping it off....)



and its definitely a fine line between what it started out as, and what it became, cause theres degree's of it. some that smell sweetly of fresh oil, some that have it just starting, and others that you could immediately notice it on when pulling it out of the sheath...
 
Hmmmm... Seems like there might be a market here for some kind of khukri deodorant. I like mine smelling minty-fresh. :rolleyes:
 
Yeah, Ballistol is definitely an acquired scent, and when a blade comes with that heavy gear oil smell and then you hit it with Ballistol! :D Quite a pungent combination.

I try to wash the blades in super hot water as soon as I get them. If there's some smell down in the scabbard, I flush that out quickly as well, then spray ballistol. Sometimes the water tightens up the scabbard a bit, but it seems to dry out quickly. That gets rid of most of the smell.

My wife still says they stink sometimes, but maybe I'm just getting used to it.

Norm
 
Bladite said:
you use what you can get ... especially if it's free. bacon dripping work too i'm sure, but i wouldn't want to be around that a few months down the road ;)

bladite
Click to expand...

Very true, thats why I was surprised to see the gear oil, it was brand new pored onto the blades from the bottle. Didnt look a cheap option....


Spiral
 
Spiral, I'm glad you saw it first hand, because it makes sense; I'd assumed they used old gear oil, but they can't. Probably too corrosive and dirty, sulphur buildup and other by products.
I like little tidbits of knowledge like this one.



munk
 
Most of the powertools I've gotten from China have been coated with one grease or another. What a stinky sticky slimy yucky mess. But, no rust on arrival is nice....
 
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