Temeprature Tolerance !!

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Feb 13, 2002
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How do they HI khukuries stand up to extremely cold weather, I remember a thread where someone was using their khuk to chop frozen logs and the bystanders swore the khuk would take damage but it never, what experiences do you chaps have ??

I'm talking really cold here, like -40 degrees centigrade !

Would the metal characterisitics chnage making the khuk more likely to snap or take damage !!

??
 
I wouldn't think so..... Considering where these come from. I would assume it gets mighty cold in Nepal. I haven't had mine long enough to tell for sure.

Brian
 
Brendan,

I have seen snow 4 times in my life, Twice when I went to Colorado for a church sponsored Ski trip. I dont know much about cold weather.

However, the only post that I read about cold weather effecting khuks is one where a guy was using a Kobra to chop down frozen trees that were about 4-5" in diameter. No edge damage, but the Kobra had a steady bend its entire length when he was done.

If you use one of the WWII, GRS's, or AK's I imagine you will be fine.

Another thing, horn is more sensitive to temp and humidity changes than wood. And be sure to throughly seal up the handle before going out into it. Anything, horn or wood, will have a hard time surviving the change in room tempature to the outside repeatedly, you might want to start storing your khuk in your truck/car so that it is slowly introduced into the cold.
(Of course, this is just what I have gathered from the forum, I have no real life experience with the cold. In central Texas, we just dont worry about it.)
 
Regarding bringing the khuk to low temp slowly....

I would think that the metal gets more brittle as it gets colder, and whether it got cold slowly or quickly it wouldn't make a whole lot of difference. Most things that break when suddenly exposed to cold are insulators - glass, ceramic, etc. They don't distribute heat as well as a metal blade.

If you're only going out for a short time, maybe to chop a few sticks of wood for the stove, it would probably be better with a warm (and slighly less brittle) khuk.

Don't know how cold you would have to get before the metal became too brittle to chop with. Probably depends on how much it's hardened and the edge profile.

(not a metallurgist, never used a khuk below 0 F or so, just speculating here)
 
Brendan:

I doubt that -40F is going to be a problem for a khuk. If it was, the springs on our cars would bust every time we hit a bump when it was -40, and they don't.

If you are planning to use your khuk under those conditions, watch out for your exposed hide though. Frostbite creeps up on you and I once froze my nose to an embarassing degree. When it thawed out it turned black and I thought it was going to fall off, but it healed up after about a month.
 
If you're really worried I'll trade you a cardboard khuk. It doesn't hold an edge quite as well but it won't shatter. It might bend but you can always straighten it in the field.

I sort of remember a thread here on cold tempering. I figure the temperatures they used were well below -40C.
 
-40 degrees! Reminds me of the tour I did at Minot AFB, ND. BRRRRRR!
One thing to consider when it gets that cold is that the springs on your car are not tempered the same as the edge of your khuk. I believe you will find a difference. There are some metals like Titanium that are not greatly affected by the temp swing but Titanium would not make a great khuk. Oh well.
 
Why wouldn't titanium be good to use for a khuk - Im guessing it's too light !

I love titanium (I have enough in my ankle) !!

:)
 
Hmmm, that doesn't make much sense about the Kobra bending under cold temps. I'm sure it would have bent more quickly under higher temps.

I'm in Canada., so i'll take mine outside in the snow once it gets here.
It's already about an average of -1C(31F) here in the mornings.. sometimes slightly colder.

I just received a 18" AK from Roadrunner... can't wait to test it out on some unsuspecting fallen logs... so my first test will be in the cold too. It's a good thick piece of steel... it should be able to take very cold temps, so long as you don't whack it flat of the blade against a frozen tree trunk.

Doubt i'll have any issues apart from snow getting in the sheath. <makes mental note to let sheath dry out before putting khuk back in for storage>
 
Originally posted by Brendan
Why wouldn't titanium be good to use for a khuk - Im guessing it's too light !

I love titanium (I have enough in my ankle) !!

:)

Actually some Titanium alloy might work but don't think it can be hardened enough to make a decent chopper which is what khuks do so well!
 
Originally posted by SilverLighT
Doubt i'll have any issues apart from snow getting in the sheath. <makes mental note to let sheath dry out before putting khuk back in for storage>

One forumite uses one of them hockey skate protectors to cover the blade. It might be useful to cover snow covered blades until you can get them indoors.
 
Titanium has to low a specific gravity (is too light) to make a good chopping tool. They've only recently made blades out of some alloys. Cliff Stamp has a review of a Titanium suvival knife and Boker makes some kitchen knives from Titanium.
 
Originally posted by BruiseLeee
One forumite uses one of them hockey skate protectors to cover the blade. It might be useful to cover snow covered blades until you can get them indoors.

Cool, good idea.. though I meant to keep it out of the sheath for a bit after I brought it indoors... and dry out the sheath before instead of just sheathing and putting away till next use.

I wouldn't worry 'bout keeping a khuk in a snowy sheath for a few hours. It'll be too cold to rust, right? ;)

oops. edited to add my comments about titanium.
Like others have mentioned it's too light.. but another, it's too brittle/hard. Especially for long blades. It's got to have some flex to it. Maybe in later years there will be a good enough alloy... but titanium use is much more recent than steel... so till then, it's a no-go.
 
Mission Knife and Tool makes knives out of Titanium. There are others but as stated it is basically too light. I believe Missions knives RC out at about 40C. This is probably a little too soft for me. One advantage though is the strength of Titanium and it can take a beating.
 
Originally posted by hoghead
Mission Knife and Tool makes knives out of Titanium. There are others but as stated it is basically too light. I believe Missions knives RC out at about 40C. This is probably a little too soft for me. One advantage though is the strength of Titanium and it can take a beating.

oh? I have a small titanium knife and I think the hardness is on the high scale.. on the verge of 62RC... It's very difficult to sharpen too....
 
I don't think it's the cold weather that affects the kukri so much, but what you are chopping.
One of the guys here that lives in Germany was out chopping some frozen Birch with his GS and dinged the blade pretty good.
He wrote me asking what I thought, whether it was a defective edge or what, seems like it was the weekend and the forum was slow.
I don't recall exactly what I did, but I duplicated the damage on my GS, I think I chopped some steel wire, and determined that the damage probably resulted in hitting a frozen knot which would be very, very hard!!!!
I wish I could remember all the details, but my damn memory doesn't always work just right, too many miles and too much medication.:rolleyes: :mad:
Some work with the chakmak and the blade was restored, his too IIRC. When using any knife outside in sub-zero temperatures it's probably a good idea to Not use a "cut and twist" motion as that would put undue torque on an extremely cold blade.
And especially one with a thinner edge!!!!
 
Maybe really hot weather (and it would have to be about 300 degrees or something!) but not cold. The only thing cold can do to a khuk is crack a handle if it gets water soaked into it and the water freezes.

Once a blade has been hardened and, in some knives tempered (not khuks I think), the carbon (which is what makes iron into steel and thus hardenable) is there to stay. The arrangement of carbon atoms amongst the iron atoms is what gives the steel a specific hardness. When the steel is heated, the iron molecules expand and the carbon migrates between them. Quenching the hot steel quickly contracts the iron atoms and traps the carbon between them. The only way to change the carbon position is to expand the iron molecules. The only way to do that is to heat it up.

As to the different materials for blades, steel is the best for all around work (best compromise between toughness and hardness). If you want the shapest edge in the world, go with a ceramic blade, but don't chop with it!

Sam
 
FWIW, my stepdad was a convoy commander on the Alcan Highway in WWII(before they thought he would be more useful driving a tank for Lord Strathconna's [sp?] Horse). He claimed that it got to -40 f and there were problems with leaf springs breaking on trucks, not to mention oil flowing in the engines (used to light fires under engines - when they couldn't just keep them running 24-7. Ran on 30% Rizlon to 70% 10 wt. oil). Perhaps this is just a -- what -- "geat white north" legend?

TAL
 
My last duty station was Ft.Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska from '96 to '99. My primary duty was a field artillery section's chief, my secondary duty was ALIT instructor, i.e. basic survival school. Our FTX's would last for weeks at a time with temps at 50 degrees below zero with windchills far lower, esp. under a hovering helicopter, dropping off a howitzer.
We would implace the howitzer using common carbon steel pioneer tools like pick axes and tanker's bars, these tools would be cold soaked and just touching them barehanded would give contact frostbite. We'd use the pick axe to chop holes into the frozen ground and really never had any breakage. I used one of the cheap AC kurkris all the time and never had any trouble, even when chopping frozen mud and snow off the howitzer after a convoy (with the back of the blade, of course!).
I split plenty of spruce and birch with no problems and prized up a frozen caribou rack out of the tundra - it reeked when it warmed up, so I left it behind!
I did hear oldtimers mention that they would heat up their axes by the fire for a few minutes in case they hit a knot while chopping.
The only metal I saw break was lugnuts on tires.
Also, the stories about diesel fuel and oil freezing are QUITE true!
You can pour it into a cup, put a stick into it and make a 30 weight popsicle! ALso, you can throw a cup of hot coffee into the air, hear it pop loudly and rain back down as slush!
One interesting note - those cheap little Peek stoves Coleman makes will start with just a match even at 50 below after they sat out all night in a cold connex.
 
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