Shop 2 18"Ang Khola

Yvsa

Yvsa

Joined
May 18, 1999
Messages
15,395

:
The fe-mailman just ran. She brought me a very nice surprise today as I am running about three days behind this week I guess.

Appearance:
I really like the plain buttcap on the Shop 2 knife. I like the diamond shape keeper that Shop 1 uses. Personal preference and nothing to do with performance.
The handle isn't finished quite as nice,but is more than adequate as I am being pretty nit picky here.
The size of the handle is perfect !! Niether my index or middle finger touches the palm of my hand with this one.They did on the 15" AK handle.
The preperation before polishing makes the polish look like it is not as good as Shop 1's is but I think it is better,at least on this one.
The scabbard is nicely made on this one and only needs some Kiwi to bring it up to Shop 1 standards.IMO. The frog has 6 rivets on the back,it was meant to stay.
The karda and chakma are 6 3/4" (4" blade) and 6 1/8" (3 3/4" blade) Very nice size !! I especially like the size of the karda. Getting used to the small hande will make it a very usable blade.
The stamping on the blade,no electric pencil,kinda adds to the charm of the whole experience.
At least we can put initilas with who made the knife now. I think the serial numbers will add to the collectablity thing if anyone is interested in that.

Performance.
I wish I could write a long detailed account,but I will put it through its paces another time.
I did take it out back though and pounded on some hardwood logs.
I kind of knew what to expect with the 15" AK,but this one exceeds the 15" in no uncertain terms. With about the same amount of effort it easily split some Catalpa with one whack where it would take 2 or 3 with the smaller one. I was also able to penetrate into the side of a log with greater depth. There is only about 1/2 Lb. dfference in the 2 Kuhkuris,but there is much more difference in performance. Even whacking it against the log using the spine or either side of the blade produced none of those hand jarring vibrations that hurt.

All in all this is exactly what I wanted. I am very pleased.
Thanks to Uncle Bill,the Kamis and Himalayan Imports for another fine blade that can be passed down to my young ones someday.
smile.gif




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>>>>---¥vsa---->®
The civilized man sleeps behind locked doors in the city while the naked savage sleeps (with a knife) in a open hut in the jungle.
 
Thanks for feedback, Yvsa. The same guy who used the electric pencil is using the steel stamps and signs everything with his own initials. He is the only kami in the shop literate enough to do the job. His first name is Karka but I don't know middle or last name. Trying to get this info emailed to me.

Uncle Bill
 
Yvsa or Bill,

Can you post the weight and blade thickness on the 18" Ang Khola? Bill stated that he expects them to come in at 2 lb. The kami tolerance will be interesting. An extra 1/2 lb is a full 33% increase in weight from the 15" Ang Khola.

I suspect that the 18" Ang Khola will easily out perform the excellent 18" (or 17.5") WWII model as well in terms of chopping.

Will
 
:
Uncle Bill,thanks for clearing up the initial thing. I do remember reading that before and forgot.
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Will,mine comes in at right close to 2 Lbs.on my old scales. Using my calipers in inches it is .465 thick at its' widest point and tapers nicely from the start of the curve. It is fairly straight from the bolster to the curve. From the tang on the butt cap to point of blade is
18 1/4". Blade is 12 3/8"

The WW II Hanuman is 17 1/2" long and the blade is 11 3/4" for reference.

It is approximately .330 thick along the first spine and about .250 to .260 along the top of the bevel where it is sharpened. Interestingly it widens out toward the tip to .275

The blade is 2.230" wide at the widest point compared to 1.780" of the WW II blade on the Hanuman.
The WW II is .460 thick and about 3/4" shorter in blade length.

I no doubt tested the AK harder than I did the Hanuman,but I did whack the Hanuman pretty hard and used the chop and twist method too,not much of a comparrison I know.
The 18" is a much better chopper than the 15" IMO.
I think it has more to do with the length than the 1/2 Lb. My wife even commented that it wasn't that much heavier. I believe that it was Cliff that said that the difference in weight between the 15" AK and the 18" AK was not nearly as great as the difference between the 18" AK and the 20" AK.

One other thing I noticed about this one is the hardness of the blade. I wanted to play with it a little and put a file to it. It just slide right over about 3"- 4" toward the point.
I was a little concerned and took my trusty nail and performed the chop test. It indented about 1/2 mm and was about 1/2 mm long. No problem. I worked it out with the diamond hone.
I think it is probably the Ideal hardness!!!


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>>>>---¥vsa---->®
The civilized man sleeps behind locked doors in the city while the naked savage sleeps (with a knife) in a open hut in the jungle.
 
I have a pair of engraved 18" AK's. They have 12" blades that are 9/16"+ thick and are 18"+ long. Weight is 1.75 and 1.66 lbs. The blades hollow out a bit more than the 15"ers which is why they are lighter for their length. My 15"AK's are about 1.56lbs. One is 1.66 and is 1/2" thick.

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Forgot to mention; the karda & chakma have brass buttcaps and a brass band at the blade. The 18"ers have white streaked horn handles.
 
Thanks for the info and great report, Yvsa. Hanuman seems to be quite sturdy. I am reluctant to use him in the field though. Handles get scratched and dinged with use.

Jay are these the "matial arts" Ang Khola's you bought a while back?

Will

[This message has been edited by Will Kwan (edited 17 July 1999).]
 
:
You're welcome Will. I won't be using Hanuman for a field blade either. Much to pretty as you say. I haven't seen the blades that most people use for the marial arts,but this one whispers 'weapon' in my ear. I am going to keep Him on the headboard ready for "unwanted guests" and "noises in the night" I found out years ago there is nothing like a walk around the house in the dark with a blade glistening in the moonlight to dispel some of those noises. Regretfully now the blade would probably be .357 Big reasons to not poke around.
wink.gif


Wow,Jay. 18" AK's for the martial arts? Them being 9/16" at the spine means the are 0.100" or about 1/8"(0.125") thicker than mine at that point. I bet those are some beautiful blades with outstanding definetion between the lines!!
I would love to see them if possible.

From what little I understand about the martial arts and Kuhkuris you must be either pretty good sized or in excellent condition or both to handle blades of this size,or is this more common than what I understand?
I would like to see a demonstration of technique with the Kuhkuri of any size,but especially some like yours.
I bet that would be beautiful to watch!!

When I was younger I played with some Big Knives.Not quite like the 18" AK,but very close sometimes and nothing like the martial arts.
(Although the discipline would have been good for me!)

Where I worked we would unload semi trailers of different dry chemicals
packaged in bags from 50 to 75 Lbs.
We would throw them to one another and it would take 4 or 5 of us about 6 hours to unload several hundred bags of this stuff. Then when we got off we would still go fishing,hunting or something. Those days are gone for me now,but on a good day I can still surprise myself.
smile.gif




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>>>>---¥vsa---->®
The civilized man sleeps behind locked doors in the city while the naked savage sleeps (with a knife) in a open hut in the jungle.
 
Jay would probably not say this about himself so I'll say it. He is not a big man but he is in excellent physical condition for a man in his 40's(if pix mean anything). Further, he has incorporated khukuris into a non-khukuri martial art with good success. His dedication to his students is highly admirable and he teaches not just moves but philosophy.

I have a friend who has used his Hanuman for a work knife in the hills of Tennessee and has put it to heavy use for a year with no problems of any kind. I warned him about the partial tang handle but it seems my warning has fallen on deaf ears -- Hanuman's! The knife is still going very strong.

Yvsa, I have a question. Did you part the nail when you chopped it? I can usually part a smaller nail when I do this test. Bolts give me a big problem though.

Uncle Bill

[This message has been edited by Bill Martino (edited 18 July 1999).]
 
:
Uncle Bill,
I chopped it about 3/4 through.This was on my little anvil log in my workroom and I didn't take a really good swing for several reasons. It was a 16 penny nail though.
Uhhhh, what size nails do you use?
I thought big knife,big nail.
smile.gif


I reworked the karda yesterday and today. I smoothed out some fairly heavy polished grind marks by the handle. I took the file clear to the point of the karda and then filed a new bevel on each side keeping the convex edge,but thinning it down a little.
I also ground a little finger groove at the base of the blade. The H.Epoxy had covered a nice little angle leading into the handle and I cut that away with a
knife.

After I got it shaped like I wanted and smoothed out nicely with the file,I put some file work along the spine and then used some emeory paper on the blade and polished it a little with the buffing wheel on the grinder. I don't think I will polish it anymore because I am going to use it,but I might to help keep any rust down. A plus to all of this was touching up the polish on the horn and seeing some nice little brown and white grain pop out of it in a couple of places.
This is the first time I have done any file work on a blade,but I have long admired it.
Looks mighty pretty my wife and me think. This just kinda personalizes my knife for me.

I am considering doing some on the Kuhkuri on the front end of the spine. I want to leave the bottom surface for driving a nail if I want.
It,s nice to have it have some fancy work on it,but I don't want to interfere with the working part of it either.

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>>>>---¥vsa---->®
The civilized man sleeps behind locked doors in the city while the naked savage sleeps (with a knife) in a open hut in the jungle.


[This message has been edited by Yvsa (edited 19 July 1999).]
 
Yvsa: oddly enough I worked on the Villager's Karda and Chakma Saturday too. I'd noticed the Hanuman/WWII Chakma had two rings filed into the back of it's handle. So I semi rounded the chakma handle's end and filed two grooves around it at the rear end. On the karda, I remembered what you'd said on getting edge and spine ( on the Cold Steel ) mixed up, so I filed the top of the handle behind the blade spine flat, then filed a notch longitudinally on each side of the flat. Makes it look like the tongue in a tongue and groove, only the tongue is nearly the whole width. Anyway, flat spine of karda continues onto flat side of handle, edged side of blade continues into the v shaped side of the handle.
 
Interesting modifications both Rusty and Yvsa. It makes the knife yours for sure.

Yvsa, the size nails I use is what I pick up first out of my jar of mixed sizes. I notice there is a difference in nail quality, too, so size and quality combined tell the story. Low quality, small nails are nothing -- chop through them with no visual damage to the blade. Big nails of good quality will deform the blade a little and you really have to give it a blast to cut through which generally doesn't happen. If I could hit the nail in the same place twice I think I could cut through about any nail in two chops but I am far from being that accurate.

I forgot to add that this weekend gave me a little time to take a close look at the 18 inch AK from shop 2 and even I am impressed. They are doing very good work at shop 2 and at $145 this knife is a best buy.

Uncle Bill



[This message has been edited by Bill Martino (edited 19 July 1999).]
 
Thanks 4 the kind words Uncle Bill. --- And Will, I think you might mean the 15" Martial Arts AK's that are a little bit lighter and not over 15" long. Yvsa, I will try 2 e-mail you a pix of the 18"ers. I am not very good at handling the khukuri but they are really interesting and fun to use in the Korean Karate forms. They add color & spice up the moves.

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How about hammering the edge of the khukuri through a nail? I suspect there will be very little damage. Chopping through the nail is a more strenous test.

Jay I could not remember which khukhuri's you had made up for the "matial arts", just that there were Ang Khola's. Do you have the spec's?

Will

[This message has been edited by Will Kwan (edited 19 July 1999).]
 
:
Uncle Bill,
you are certainly right about the 18" AK from shop 2 being the "best buy". I don't know if it is the "magic stone" or what. I noticed some small hammer marks on the bevel which might mean the Kamis are concerned about grinding to much metal off after using the stone.
Most people wouldn't notice or pay attention to these kind of hammer marks,but that was my first thought when I noticed them.

Another thing is if all the kardas and chakmas are as big as the ones I got. They are stll small as knives go,But very much more useable than most of them i've seen.A four inch blade is nice. The scabbard also seems to have been made from the same type of hide as the Villager if I haven't mentiond that. Kinda reminds me of the deerskin I made into rawhide last year. The deer was so fat the hide almost tanned itself while I was scraping it. Some parts around the edges are fairly soft like leather,but it wets,stretches and dries like rawhide with a nice smooth shiny surface.

Rusty,
that's interesting about what you done with the karda. Mine has the filework and the finger cutout so it's hard to get it mixed up.
I think I am one of the few people who know about my son's accident with that knife. I still chuckle about it.
He was always in a hurry,still is..
I an considering drilling a small hole through the handle of the
chakma ,chamfering it on both sides and putting a piece of copper tubing in it and swedgeing it down for a lanyard hole. It would make it much easier to get out of the scabbard.


Jay,
I would very much like for you to send me some pix if you will.
It is a relief knowing that they are the 15" AK's instead of the 18"AK.
The 1/2 Lb doesn't make a lot of difference,but that 3" sure does. I can see why people would ask Cliff what he is going to do with "That" knife.
I had a friend who is a 4th degree black belt in Tae Kwan Do (sp?) is this anything like what you do? I am pretty unfamiliar with all the Martial arts.

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>>>>---¥vsa---->®
The civilized man sleeps behind locked doors in the city while the naked savage sleeps (with a knife) in a open hut in the jungle.
 
Yvsa, that was the primary reason the kamis resisited polishing the blades too heavily. They claimed it would take away the effect of the stone and make the blade weaker.
I wish I could visit the shop and see exactly what it is they are doing but whatever they are doing they are doing right. Shop 2 is making really top quality blades.

Will, I think you might be right about pounding the khukuri thru the nail. I've never tried this since what I want to see is what the blade does rather than the nail. I suppose if I had a task to chopping nails with a khukuri I'd try to work a pull into my chop so that I'd be rolling the nail when the edge made contact. Might have better luck with that technique -- though this is conjecture at the present. Might try this next time I attack a bunch of nails.

Uncle Bill
 
Yvsa, --- Tae Kwon Do & Tang Soo Do are both Korean and very similar. The moves in the forms are slightly different. I am pretty sure they originate from Soo Bahk Do at about 37 B.C. I have books on this to refer to. It seems that no one knows for sure but many of the martial arts are a mix of Chinese -Okinawan- Japanese, etc. According to what I read, the earliest evidence karate- like technique came from India and is called vajramushti.

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Will... These are the specs for the martial arts 15" AKs. (15" long) --- (blade length 9 &1/2") --- (blade thickness 3/8") --- (handle 5 & 1/2") --- (blade width 1 & 7/8") --- (weight 1.24 lbs)--- (weight in scabbard with karda & chakma 1.72 lbs.)

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Interestingly, also heard that the Greek form called Pankration ( sp? ) or all powers fighting, dated back to the time of Phillip of Macedon, and his son Alexander the Great, so speculatively there could have been cross-pollination with the arts from India either or both ways.
 
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