The Smashing Samsher!

DarthTaco123

DarthTaco123

Joined
Mar 28, 2013
Messages
1,730
Welp, the mail came today and I got a triangle box! This is by far a historical khukuri, it weighs 24 oz...at a 19" length. I'd consider it a yek chirra based on the deepness of the hollow forging. The handle is short and fat, the bolster is short, everything about this indicates that Thamar does indeed make a fantastic historical blade. I'd consider the fit and finish to be village on the blade (still some forging marks on the spine etc) but for the price I can't argue. It's about 1/4" shorter than my buddy's AMA longleaf but the shape is more like a Bojpure. The tang is all the way through the handle and pinned/peened over. I've yet to take it out and chop but I've got an inkling that it'll perform very, very well.
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I love Thamar! (well not in any mano mano way ya understand) He just seems to exude traditional and that's a fine fine example.

The fact that you compared it to a longleaf it a big tell tale sign. That thing is beautiful and color me extremely jealous and envious.

Very nice. May you love it and respect it very long time.
 
I can't resist the urge, I'm going to do some chopping and splitting with it later. The spine isn't as thick as some other khuks (leads to the low weight) so I won't be splitting logs with it but the edge on this just screams chopper. My only concern is I hear a faint rattle towards the top of the blade up by the bolster, I doubt it's the handle come lose so it might just be a bit of laha rattling around up in the bolster.

-Edit-

The clicking/rattling is the bolster, it's a tad loose. No idea as to how to fix it, the wood doesn't seem shrunk at all. It looks like the Laha didn't get a full stick and the bit of chopping I did let it loose. No structural issues, but it's a tiny bit annoying.
 
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You may be able to heat the handle with the plastic bag trick in water to get the laha to stick again. It does look pretty tight but chopping reveals all. Man that wood is gorgeous. Fix the bolster before you try to oil up the handle tho.
Check out the edge profile on mine. Is yours about the same? It definitely has a chopping edge but for chopping what is the question. Im thinking heads!
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DarthTaco123 said:
I can't resist the urge, I'm going to do some chopping and splitting with it later. The spine isn't as thick as some other khuks (leads to the low weight) so I won't be splitting logs with it but the edge on this just screams chopper. My only concern is I hear a faint rattle towards the top of the blade up by the bolster, I doubt it's the handle come lose so it might just be a bit of laha rattling around up in the bolster.

-Edit-

The clicking/rattling is the bolster, it's a tad loose. No idea as to how to fix it, the wood doesn't seem shrunk at all. It looks like the Laha didn't get a full stick and the bit of chopping I did let it loose. No structural issues, but it's a tiny bit annoying.
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I am sure auntie will take it back, and replace it. She can always sell it as a blem.
 
but if you wanted to fix yourself some pine resin or laha/ damar will do just fine, if you want to go modern just epoxy that fool

like cul said though, auntie would sure take it back and sell as a blem instead of have an unhappy customer
 
Far from unhappy! The edge rolled a bit but that was on me, struck a knot just wrong but I was able to file/hammer it back to place. I'll probably just get some heated pine resin if I can find any to work into the bolster.

-Edit-

Found last years batch of pine resin glue, the last of it. I think it may or may not need a bit of heating up.
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I would just sharpen out the rolled part. That's what happened with mine as well, very very little. Like under 1mm...it was rather an impact of the edge maybe moreso. The metal left is deff. harder but how hard remains to be seen after one or two more sharpenings. It is my understanding that polished or not, some decarburization may still happen. This is why I said I'd pay more just to have these blades pre-tested, knot or not knot, I wouldn't mind some scratches but for collectors that might not be in their best interest. You know, you just get too attached to send them back :)...

Good luck with everything, I just LOVE the specs on this one.
 
The cap came loose again with a little work, I think it's high time I re-heated the pine gunk up, I managed to open the bolster enough you can see there's next to no laha holding it together, figure I'll substitute my own!
 
Hey Darth, You might know this already but pine resin is readily soluble in rubbing alcohol. If you have the 91% stuff it works great for thinning it out to get into very tight places. The alcohol will then evaporate out leaving it hard and dry. You can cook the thinned liquid out until you get the right consistency as well. Please dont blow yourself up tho.
 
Blowing myself up isn't on my agenda today. First step is to cook the crud up so it's soft and gooey, then I'll cut it with some rubbing alcohol and try and work it in. The bolster is nearly void of any and all laha.
 
Somehow i figured you knew how to do that. We had a rash of Pine beetles one year and I must have collected two gallons of the stuff from the trees before they croaked. I think thats what I did as well come to think of it. Cook and add to thin. Then you could strain all the beetles and bark from the stuff and get some nice raw material. Great stuff for soldering flux too. Id also roll up a bunch of newspaper to log size and dip the ends in while its hot and make some cool firelogs. Easy to start too. Plenty of uses:thumbup: Good luck with the repair. Your getting me fired up to fix my Samsher now. It has a loose scale and the pins need to be tightened.
 
Gotta do some light pounding on the bolster and the pine pitch glue and I should be set. It isn't anything structural like yours but it bothers me nonetheless.
 
That's a MKI replica you have there. It's a nut screwed on to the end of the tang and its sunken into the handle then ground flush. First one I've ever seen from HI.
 
The magical rabbit dung, pine ash-pine pitch glue seems to have done it, there was such a gap in the bolster that some actually ran through onto the handle (shouldn't be that bad to sand off) but I'll let it harden tonight, see if I need to do another go about of it tomorrow.

And thanks for the info Dirtbiker!
 
Good for ya man, let us know how it works. That piece you have is incredible.

What is the status on your antique AC blade, I was following that?
 
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