Quick Karda Questions?

M

Mindz_I

Joined
Nov 6, 2002
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435
I recently purchased a 15" ak with which I'm very happy, however the Karda came with a real butter knife edge too it.

My only real means of sharpening is a Spyderco Sharpmaker (204? The set with course and fine, but not diamond rods) and with this I set about trying to put an edge on the knife in question.

After considerable effort I appear to have finished up with a blade with a rather sharp base and tip yet still a belly that barely catches my nail and is visibily blunt.

While there's a good chance my sharpening technique is just poor, I was curious if Kardas are made with a differential hardness possibly accounting for this problem?

cheers
 
IIRC, a lot of the chakmas and kardas are made by the kami's helpers and not the kamis themselves. That said, you could have gotten an irregularly heat-treated karda blade, but i would think that because of their small kardas would be uniform in hardness. Most of my smaller tools tend to be a little softer than the sweet spots of my khuks. I have found that the convex sharpening system of a mousepad, sanding block, and sandpaper is a very good way to get a karda to a good toothy edge in no time. Their are TONS of threads on this if you would like to do a search. I'm sure the experts will be along shortly:)


~Jake
 
Many of the karda I've seen need serious reprofiling. I would suggest a combination coarse/fine bench stone. In the States, I would suggest a Norton, but I don't know what is available in England. I have a sharpmaker, and it's great for touchup, but could take days to do what you need. Of course, a diamond stone would be the quickest, but I always look at least cost first.

Good luck,

Steve
 
Steely_Gunz said:
IIRC, a lot of the chakmas and kardas are made by the kami's helpers and not the kamis themselves. That said, you could have gotten an irregularly heat-treated karda blade, but i would think that because of their small kardas would be uniform in hardness. Most of my smaller tools tend to be a little softer than the sweet spots of my khuks. I have found that the convex sharpening system of a mousepad, sanding block, and sandpaper is a very good way to get a karda to a good toothy edge in no time. Their are TONS of threads on this if you would like to do a search. I'm sure the experts will be along shortly:)

~Jake
Click to expand...

Cheers,

I'll do a search as I've been interested to try the sandpaper and mousepad method for quite some time, so this could possibly be an ideal opportunity.

Thanks.

Fergusson;
Aye, I'm not sure if a 'norton' is available in England or not (it may well be though I'm not enough of an enthusiast to say either way).

Thanks kindly
 
Cheers guys,

I was thinking about purchasing something like a DMT or EZE tri-fold diamond sharpener for faster cutting, seems like now would be a good time to try it.
 
Sometimes the karda works okay and sometimes it doesn't. The kamis know that the karda is not used today as it was say 50 years ago and don't give it the attention it once got. Result: greatly varying quality. For whatever it might be worth Bura makes the best kardas and chakmas coming out of BirGorkha. I think this is because they were making high quality karkas and chakmas when he was learning the craft 50 or 55 years back.
 
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