Question about karda

A

arbytwo

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Apr 21, 2013
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I received my ang khola recently, ordered on a Monday, shipped on Tuesday and in my hands on Thursday. Prompt shipping and Yangdu responded quickly and accurately about the status of my order. Excellent customer service. The ang khola is beautiful, excellent fit and finish and the workmanship is superb. I'm a little reluctant to get it dirty. My question is about the karda. As I understand it, the karda is a companion knife for finer tasks that would be unsuitable for the khukri, much like my Ka-Bar BK7, BK13 combo. The karda I received had no edge and that puzzled me since the ang khola was shaving sharp. Can someone enlighten me? Is there a reason to have a dull karda or is it left up to the user to decide how sharp it should be? It's a small blade and not difficult to put an edge to it, just curious.
On a side note, is there an index of kami marks so I could identify the maker of my ang khola? I like that these items are signed. It shows a pride of workmanship.
Thanks for any answers.
 
There usually is two small tools with the Khuk. A Chakma which is the small utility knife and is usually reasonably sharp, the karda is square on both sides and works basically like a steel to clean the blade or straighten if the edge gets tweaked a bit.

I think I got that right, I still have a hard time remembering terminology and I can't begin to remember all the versions and models.

Send a picture of the markings and someone here will know who made it. I remember Tirtha is like a mug, I know Rajkumar's but can't describe it, kind of a mountain looking mark.

Correction-This is backwards. Chakma is sharpening steel, Karda is utility knife.
 
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Hi, arbytwo
Chakma is the non sharpened of the two extra tools you get, and is used mostly to get sparks from a fire-starter or as a file to do some emergency sharpening in the field. The other one is a small utility knife - karda, and should be reasonably sharp.
I heard of some people getting two chakmas by mistake, they look kinda similar, although usually the karda is a bit longer/beefier.

Send the pics if you can.

Hope that helps...

PS. Do get the AK dirty, you will both enjoy it tremendously. There is no other way to get to know any tool better, unless you use it.
 
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iliam said:
Hi, arbytwo

I heard of some people getting two chakmas by mistake, they look kinda similar, although usually the karda is a bit longer/beefier.

PS. Do get the AK dirty, you will both enjoy it tremendously. There is no other way to get to know any tool better, unless you use it.
Click to expand...

I say: By all means use it. You will appreciate it even more. I found the easiest way to bring it back to beauty is clean the blade with alcohol to remove the tree sap resins etc as they are readily soluble in alcohol (70% or 91% rubbing). Then I use those thin foam sanding pads you buy at the auto parts store (3000 grit) to polish any scratches you might have put on it during the day. If you made deeper scratches i suppose you can go down to 2000 or 1000 etc. until scratches are gone but ive only had to use the 3000. Is super quick and dont forget to oil it afterwards because alcohol will remove any oils you had on it before. Prolly a million ways to do it but this works for me so im sharing.
 
I thought you meant Karda. I would tell you he is a good man.:p
 
Iliam is correct and I was as usual backwards, got the chakma and the Karda reversed. I asked auntie too, I must have forgot already.
 
To be honest most chakmak and karda are small and not very useful. Some of my longer HI blades have come with useful sized kardas (5-7 inches). If your karda came dull (common) use can sharpen it up with a file, sandpaper, or a stone.
 
You can try to sharpen up the karda. I've sharpened one or two up to a decent edge but they tend to be very thick for their length. I've also had some that you just couldn't use. I've used a small cheap paring knife as a karda in a couple of sheaths and they work okay too.
 
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