refinishing a khuk?

C

charels

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hey there uncle bill, this is charels, remember me? I bought an AK Chiruwa blem about three weeks ago. Great knife. A little bad news though, i was testing tip penetration, and i stabbed the tip right into concrete. my target was a block of wood above the concrete, but needless to say, i missed. my life flashed before my eyes as i brought the blunted tip up for inspection. well, i sort of repaired it with a little help from a file and sandpaper, and now it is a drop point khukuri. still love it though. After my little mishap, i put it through some chores, and the finish had a weathered look to it. my question is, how do you refinish a khukuri to its original condition? and, is it possible to get it hard chromed? if so, what type of shop should i take it to to get it hard chromed? thank you for your time.

p.s. HI has the best service
 
:
Charels:
You might want to rethink having the
khukuri hard chromed!!
Yea it will rust if not taken care of like it is, BUT, Hard Chrome has an insidious fault of getting chipped and then rusting underneath the coating unseen!!
I don't mind having a nice smooth satin finish on my using khukuri's and I use the fine Scotch Brite® on them being careful to work toward the edge. The 1st time I used the Scotch Brite® I had to resharpen the edge since I had let the abrasive dull it.
Even hard chromed the blade would still show small scratches from chopping with it.
Hope this helps.
smile.gif


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>>>>---¥vsa---->®

"There's no trick in being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you."

...............Will Rogers......

Khukuri FAQ
 
Any tool you use hard will show signs of wear and I think that's okay. And, Yvsa is an old shop hand who knows his stuff better than almost anybody so take his advice about the chrome.

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Blessings from the computer shack in Reno.

Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
Khukuri FAQ
 
If you do decide to go through with that make sure the person doing the job knows what embrittlement is and how to alleviate the problem. I would personally never have this on any knife I planned on using. Why not just have it blued by a gunsmith?


Regards,

Tom Carey
 
I would not recommend hard chrome, while it is possible it will be labor intensive. First you will have to remove the handle. Hard chroming requires soaking and cleaning at 90 C which would most likely casue the epoxy in the handle to melt. The blade will be exposed to HCl, chromic acid and high voltage. Unless you allow the chromer to drill a hole in the blade or tang (not much room in a H.I. tang) there is a potential the blade will fall into the acid bath. Also, hydrogen embrittlement is possible and will need to be removed after hard chroming.

How about a plain blue finished which you can maintain yourself?

Will
 
Hi, maybe I can steer you in the right direction on bluing since I have done a little work with each of the mainstream methods.

Most gunsmith blue jobs are done with hot caustic salt solution, no brass bolsters allowed or the salt bath will be damaged by the copper. Also soft solder may melt at the temps used.

Most ?Mart cold blues are junk and will wear quickly and don't provide much rust protection. This includes The Big Company name that every one has heard of.

The exception is Brownells Oxphoblue cold blue. This is a professional product that creates a phosphated black conversion coating of the surface of the steel. It is applied at room temperature by hand and is very durable and rust resistant. You apply it, let it work and then polish with steel wool and repeat until you get the finish you want. It will be a black low gloss look, very "tactical" and as durable as any finish I can think of but won't be proof against dings, scratching etc from normal kukuri wear and tear. It can be touched up though to blend in areas where the finish is gone.

Once I get my "good" Kukuri I'm thinking of getting one by a rural Kami for the truck and I will probably blue it this way for rust protection and just to be different.

Just to round things out, If I had a dress Khukuri that I wanted the best possible blue/black finish on I would use Herter's Belgiun Blue. This is used by boiling the steel part in water, coating with the solution, boiling again, polishing with degreased steel wool and then repeat. It is traditional to repeat the process 21 times. It is not as durable as the Oxphoblue but it makes the steel the most beautiful soft velvety blue/black with a finish that you can see down into. This is how old FN Browning double barreled shotgun barrels were blued.

Hope this helps.

 
Snuffy,
"Yvsa's mayonnaise trick" sounds X-rated
smile.gif
, but is really the first post in a whole thread on Tricks in the HI archive.
Berk

[This message has been edited by Berkley (edited 07-13-2000).]
 
Berkley,
I checked out the 'tricks' thread - I don't think I could bring myself to 'age' one of these khuks - they almost look too beautiful to use. (Okay, I'll admit scratches from use do add character.)
 
The Oxphoblue cold blue and Herter's rust blue I mentioned before will turn a mirror finish satin because you have to polish or "card" it with steel wool between coats to get the most dense and durable finish. Also, they seem to have a very mild etching action as it works on the steel.

The only way I know to get a near mirror blue finish is to use the traditional black oxide salt bath used by gunsmiths. The finish will be very "tender" and show wear quickly. If you have ever seen a handgun with holster wear on the edges you know what I mean.

 
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