soft chakma

K

Kazeryu

Joined
Nov 7, 2005
Messages
960
There seem to be a number of cases where people find their chakmas are too soft for use as burnishers. I was thinking about this while I was reading some of the sharpening threads, and something occurred to me...

There is a lot of talk about how very high heat lowers carbon content in the edge metal, leading to a soft edge which disappears after a few sharpenings. Grinding away the outer layer reveals the much harder steel underneath.

Could this be the case with the chakmas? Has anyone tried 'sharpening' their chakma to see if there is harder steel lurking underneath?
 
That could be the case, and that is a very good point. However, i see the soft chakma thing as the kamis seeing the chakma as a showy traditional novelty instead of a dyed in the wool burnisher. After all, most khuks in Nepal are sharpened on rocks out in the field. They are pitted and dinged and nicked and thrashed. Anyone else know?

Jake
 
When I think I've heard it all, I haven't. Yeppers. Why not? Don't think so, but any thing is possible.

A custom six gun cartridge designer, and I don't recall off-hand who,
( though it was Bowen or Linebaugh) used to offer a conversion on a Ruger single action that entailed reboring the barrel. They stopped doing this, as, 'they reached a material too hard for their tooling to cut through."

So, why not? I've got some scratched Chakmas I may re-examine.



munk
 
If you've got a soft chakmak, be sure to check all the sides. Several of mine are soft on one side and harder on the other.
 
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