Sharpening the karda

Daniel L

Daniel L

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Nov 2, 1998
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My karda has a very thick covex grind (like the shape of the nose on a rocket) which means it's very strong but I've had a lot of trouble actually getting it "sharp", mainly because of the edge thickness. It actually "finely tears" paper whereas the WWII edge cuts paper nicely.

Is the karda really designed as a "small knife" or more as an awl or wedge? Currently I'm teaming up my WWII with a Spyderco Moran (i.e. a big chopper and a small "fine work" knife) - but I don't really know what to do with the karda.

Maybe I'll just grind the karda down to a thinner edge...

Comments?

Daniel.
 
The kardas are much, much thicker than most normal utility knives. Of course the khukuris are much, much thicker than most survival / heavy utility knives I have seen. As with everything there is a compromise to be made. Thicker means stronger but also a loss in slicing performance. However if you could only have one knife which way would you want it? Thick enough to handle all jobs, but a bit awkard on the lighter ones? Or that thin that it does all the light ones really well, but breaks on the heavier tasks.

For most people this is not much of a concern as I personally can't remember when I left the house carring only one knife. However I would bet that in Nepal, if you went out hunting / collecting wood or whatever you didn't take along a collection of knives, the khukuri + karda / chakma were probably your only knives which is why they are all fairly thick.

Anyway, the karda seems to me to be made out of the same steel as the khukuris themselves. It sharpens easily and will take both a nice coarse edge or a highly polished one. Yes the grind is a bit thick but that does not effect the ability of the knife to take an edge.

If you had access to a power sharpener then you could thin out the bevels and make a nice thin slicer out of the karda if you wanted. You could of course do this by hand but it would take some doing as there is a lot of metal to remove.

-Cliff
 
Thanks for good advice, Cliff, and observative post.

Daniel, it all depends on what you want your karda to do. If reshaping it will help you then go ahead. As I often say, making the knife more yours is what it's all about.

Uncle Bill
 
Daniel, like Cliff and Bill said, it's what you want the karda to do. Out of my collection I have kardas that are very 'flat' ground for a fine slicing edge, and another group that has a 'steep' angle forming more of a chopping edge. So tradition is dictated by the owner. The khukuris with 5 or more utility tools always have two kardas with two different edges.

------------------
JP
 
Hi Daniel,

The Spyderco Moran teamed with a khukuri is an excellent arrangement. The Moran will handle fine cutting task better than the karda, it has more belly, better handle, and is likely thinner. Perhaps attaching the Moran to the khukuri with wrapped para cord is the way to go.

A Spyderco Sharpmaker was used to make all my H.I. karda's sharper than the main blade. Sometimes quite a bit of metal needs to be removed from the edge to get the desired sharpness.

I don't use my sharp karda's for anything as I team my khukuri up with a Grohman D.H. Russel belt knife (somewhat similar to a Moran but not as well designed for fine work). I quess the karda is a backup to the Russel for me.

Will
 
Thanks for the input guys.

I guess I wanted to get an idea of a "typical" karda and its application. I'll put the karda to the grinder (carefully) and see how I go.
 
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