Hi mates,
Just have some freetime today. No work, no worry and mind is clear, wife is also not around, feeling energetic a precious chance for me to finish this khukuri of mine. And right after I have finished it, I would like to share these experiences with you guys.
Making a knife always brings me enjoyable feelings though the knives I made are not beautiful yet. I came across the khukuri in 2008 and I started to love it then. Before, the Customs in my country was still naive, I could manage to buy few pieces from KHHI. However, the Customs is becoming more rigid and I can no longer buy anymore. I found the traditional way in making khukuri is interesting. In mid Jan this year, an idea pop out the Customs sucks, why dont I try to make a khukuri myself?. Then the project began.
From the pictures you posted in this forum, I chose some of my favourite designs. I traced the outline on computer, print the outline in paper, then cut a draft on a piece of metal like our kamis usually do. Then I had a local blacksmith make a raw blade for me at the price of $15 each blade. The blacksmith does not know a thing about khukuri. I had to inspire him with a lot of pictures. Out of the 03 blades he made, I just can choose one to work on the finishing. He still charged me full price for the two failing blades but thats okay. Its R&D cost.
Below is one of the 02 blades that I dont proceed to finshing.
I dont have a belt sander to shape up the blade so I used the bench grinder to profile it. At first, Im really scared. Totally, I didnt have any experience in how to hold the blade, how to make the V shape on the spine,..etc. But along the way I grind, I started to gain confidence with the bench grinder. It works quite well. Here are my tools:
The hollow part (chirra) on the blade is still not there yet. The blacksmith is just familiar with the flat blades and they dont know how to do it. Me too!
For the stripes on the blade, the chisel I bought is not hard enough for the job, and my hammer is just 100g which cannot drive the chisel much into the blade. Then I just park it there.
What Im still not happy is that there are some tinny holes in the raw blades. This is left when the steel are pressed during hammering. The holes are deep and I just can leave them as is. If I shave them off, the blade cannot be kept flat. Next time, I will ask the blacksmith to have about 2-3mm thick buffer to the raw blade.
For the cho, I used a crescent (half moon) file to file it into shape.
For the convex edge, I was making a thin edge profile as a balace between chopping and clearing bush. I tried some chops and it worked quite well. I also had a light chop on steel water pipe with this blade. The blade survived well, however, when I chopped a steel sheet (1mm thick), the blade had a small chip. Probably, when the contact surface is small and the impact pressure is high, its easy to get chipped.
The hardest part to me is the bolster. I tried to cut a piece of brass from 0.9mm thick sheet stock, then soldered it into a ring with a gas torch. But this was not a good solution in my case,with my tools, at my level. Another option for me is to cut it from 28mm diameter brass pipe, then hammer it into shape. The drawback is that you can see the bolster is getting wider towards the cho and spine.
For the handle, I made it in the form of rat-tail tang. I did not peen but I used a nut-and-bolt solution for this. The wood I bought from the local carpenter. This is a similar kind of hard wood to Dhar (in terms of functions). In Vietnam, we use it to make the wheels for cow cart. This hard wood can survive sun and rain with minimum shrink, and people just call it cart-wheel wood. Next time, I will have some more angulation to the end of the handle, from the ring backwards, leaving more comfortability for the hand while chopping.
This took me nearly 4 months of weekend time off and on to finish this piece. I still need more time to finish the blade and work on the scabbard. Its true that when I get down making the knife myself, I realised the reality of the hard work and admire the Kamis for their talents, knowledge, skills and patience.
If you mates have any idea on how to make the piece better, kindly share!
Wish Auntie and you mates all the best!
Hung
Just have some freetime today. No work, no worry and mind is clear, wife is also not around, feeling energetic a precious chance for me to finish this khukuri of mine. And right after I have finished it, I would like to share these experiences with you guys.
Making a knife always brings me enjoyable feelings though the knives I made are not beautiful yet. I came across the khukuri in 2008 and I started to love it then. Before, the Customs in my country was still naive, I could manage to buy few pieces from KHHI. However, the Customs is becoming more rigid and I can no longer buy anymore. I found the traditional way in making khukuri is interesting. In mid Jan this year, an idea pop out the Customs sucks, why dont I try to make a khukuri myself?. Then the project began.
From the pictures you posted in this forum, I chose some of my favourite designs. I traced the outline on computer, print the outline in paper, then cut a draft on a piece of metal like our kamis usually do. Then I had a local blacksmith make a raw blade for me at the price of $15 each blade. The blacksmith does not know a thing about khukuri. I had to inspire him with a lot of pictures. Out of the 03 blades he made, I just can choose one to work on the finishing. He still charged me full price for the two failing blades but thats okay. Its R&D cost.
Below is one of the 02 blades that I dont proceed to finshing.
I dont have a belt sander to shape up the blade so I used the bench grinder to profile it. At first, Im really scared. Totally, I didnt have any experience in how to hold the blade, how to make the V shape on the spine,..etc. But along the way I grind, I started to gain confidence with the bench grinder. It works quite well. Here are my tools:
The hollow part (chirra) on the blade is still not there yet. The blacksmith is just familiar with the flat blades and they dont know how to do it. Me too!
For the stripes on the blade, the chisel I bought is not hard enough for the job, and my hammer is just 100g which cannot drive the chisel much into the blade. Then I just park it there.
What Im still not happy is that there are some tinny holes in the raw blades. This is left when the steel are pressed during hammering. The holes are deep and I just can leave them as is. If I shave them off, the blade cannot be kept flat. Next time, I will ask the blacksmith to have about 2-3mm thick buffer to the raw blade.
For the cho, I used a crescent (half moon) file to file it into shape.
For the convex edge, I was making a thin edge profile as a balace between chopping and clearing bush. I tried some chops and it worked quite well. I also had a light chop on steel water pipe with this blade. The blade survived well, however, when I chopped a steel sheet (1mm thick), the blade had a small chip. Probably, when the contact surface is small and the impact pressure is high, its easy to get chipped.
The hardest part to me is the bolster. I tried to cut a piece of brass from 0.9mm thick sheet stock, then soldered it into a ring with a gas torch. But this was not a good solution in my case,with my tools, at my level. Another option for me is to cut it from 28mm diameter brass pipe, then hammer it into shape. The drawback is that you can see the bolster is getting wider towards the cho and spine.
For the handle, I made it in the form of rat-tail tang. I did not peen but I used a nut-and-bolt solution for this. The wood I bought from the local carpenter. This is a similar kind of hard wood to Dhar (in terms of functions). In Vietnam, we use it to make the wheels for cow cart. This hard wood can survive sun and rain with minimum shrink, and people just call it cart-wheel wood. Next time, I will have some more angulation to the end of the handle, from the ring backwards, leaving more comfortability for the hand while chopping.
This took me nearly 4 months of weekend time off and on to finish this piece. I still need more time to finish the blade and work on the scabbard. Its true that when I get down making the knife myself, I realised the reality of the hard work and admire the Kamis for their talents, knowledge, skills and patience.
If you mates have any idea on how to make the piece better, kindly share!
Wish Auntie and you mates all the best!
Hung
I most certainly admire your perseverance in getting your khukuri finished!:thumbup: 