Tempering question

SkagSig40

SkagSig40

Joined
Feb 1, 2001
Messages
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Long ago Uncle Bill told me the Khukuries were quenched with water. He said roughly the edge was placed edge down in aprox 1 inch deep water or water was poured along the edge no higher then 1 inch high up the side of the blade. Has that changed in recent years? Do the Kamis still use water or dothey have access to any kind of oils these days? Do or did they heat the blades to non-magnetic before the quenching process?
 
I'm almost positive that the austenizing temperature is higher than the Curie point, so, yes, the blades are heated into the non-magnetic temperature range before quenching.

I had heard that quenching was done by pouring water onto the edge with something that looked like a teapot, but I don't know for sure.
 
Hi Skagsig
Yes, I think they still do. Saw a recent video (from another site) where the kami poured water on the hot blade.
Cheers
Eric
 
kamis use a teapot full of boiling water. takes years to learn how to do it consistantly.
 
I think the kamis use water at room temp; the teapot is used because the spout ensures a specific amount of water hits the blade in a certain time. Spring steel doesn't really like to be quenched in water, so the smaller amount of water hitting the blade is like an "interrupted quench." There is much less stress generated within the blade this way.
 
Intresting guys! So if 5160 spring steel does not like water why don't we sent them a 55gal drum of Mobil 1 for them to temper in? 55 gal of oil should last years.
 
The ones I watched bieng made at "New Bishwarkara khukuri industries" in Dharan were tempered with boiling water poured from a kettle.

Spiral
 
Yes, boiling water from a teapot/kettle/similar. :thumbup:


The water has to be boiling as to not shock the steel and overharden it (brittle).


This manner of quenching is very interesting....it does indeed act as marquenching/interrupted quench). I'd really like to see somebody smarter than me (Kevin Cashen perhaps?) do some testing in a similar way with some 5160 - to try to figure out exactly what is going on in the steel.

It is my understanding that the water is poured continuously over the edge and that the kami has to carefully watch the colors the steel goes through....which says to me that something more than quenching is going on.

I may have a video showing the process...I'll look around.
 
on the oil thing - this has been brought up many times.


The kamis don't like it - "makes a huge mess" they say. Water is readily available, oil may not always be.



I think this manner of quenching evolved because of the recurve nature of the kukri. You can't exactly dunk the blade into a quench tank and get a consistent edge quench.

Edge quenching here in the USA is done by 1 of 2 ways (that I know of).

1 - only heat up the edge...requires using an O/A torch
2 - only quench the edge...best on bowie knives, etc....that have a straight edge


Neither of those works for kukris.



But the teapot quench does. ;)


And no, you wouldn't get as good results with oil in the teapot vs. water.
 
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