welding broken khuk

Khukuri Monster

Khukuri Monster

Joined
Aug 4, 2004
Messages
373
First of all, here are some pictures of the khukuri I broke:

broken1.jpg

broken2.jpg


I planned to fix it by welding on a piece of 1/2" O-1 drill rod. I cut a slot in the drill rod using an angle grinder and cleaned it up with a file. You can see this in these pictures:

broken3.jpg

broken4.jpg


If I weld it up like that, will it hold?

As you can see, I also took the opportunity to remove some of the "cho creep". I have a nice piece of hickory for the handle. It probably won't look as good as an exotic hardwood, but it's free, and all my knives are users, anyway.
 
I want to ask, should the drill rod overlap the tang more? Right now the slot in the drill rod is probably about 5/8" long.

I'm not going to be welding this myself (I should really learn someday), but I'm having an expert at the nearby Boy Scout camp do this for me.
 
...and all my knives are users, anyway. KM

I like the way you think:) I have no idea if your idea will work or not, because i'm pretty much a dumb chimp when it comes to fixing things. Breakin' stuff?...no problem:) It looks like a pretty good idea to me. We have so many talented guys in the cantina. The only thing i'm good at is cutting myself and making up new swear words.

Jake
 
i do a little welding and i did have a break like this. you are luckier, tho, in that there is some tang left. mine snapped right at the blade, and as such i figured was a complete loss.

it looks like you may have ground the tang a bit, so that you know the stub left isn't the same brittle material as the broken area? ie you have good metal to weld to.

your welder can puddle the new metal to reinforce the join at the tips and slots of your new piece. there shouldn't be a problem there. this will also bring the tang up into uniform thickness w/the repair piece.

this is actually good -- a nice educational project without sacrificing a perfect new unit.

good luck on your repair. and remember, plenty of people here know more than i do. ;-)
ab
 
it will be a pretty big join on a small area, and the welder may want to be careful about letting a lot of heat run up into the blade. others here will know more about that.
ab
 
yeah, that would work, KM. Might be a little overkill, though....:D.....just remember that a good weld is as good as the steel itself.

If more people knew just how much modern steel-frame buildings relied on welding...........well, let's just say that Bruise would be working in a nice cubicle in a grass field....:D

It's scary sometimes....but a butt-welded joint is really quite strong - just takes some faith.
 
Re: the heat creep

I'd be more worried about the blade(new tang area) being too hard....

Just have your buddy heat the new tang up to red hot - making sure that it doesn't reach the blade and let it air cool slowly overnight. You'll get a nice tang that will bend before it breaks.
 
Notice that the habaki bolster is covering the tang and not the blade. I know this has been a long-standing practice, and we don't exactly have khuks failing left and right...but I can't help thinking that you'd get a stronger package if you made sure the handle was attached right up to the blade.
 
KM, looks like you're well on your way. Don't know a thing about welding, but I certainly salute the way you're going about things.

With the amount of work you're putting into this, I've a feeling that, if the operation is successful, it's going to become your favorite khuk. I feel the same way about the bone handled GRS that I salvaged after the handle shattered.

I look forward to seening the finished product. Hickory should make a great handle.
 
Khukuri Monster said:
I planned to fix it by welding on a piece of 1/2" O-1 drill rod.

If I weld it up like that, will it hold?
Click to expand...
NO!!!! ABSOLUTELY DO NOT DO THIS!!!!:eek:

KM you've got the right idea, just the wrong material. Use a piece of 1018 cold rolled steel or other soft steel to weld onto the tang. By using 0-1 you're just begging the tang to break again as it will harden when you weld it.
Using the 1018 or other low carbon steel will enable you to weld it up without it hardening. The tangs are supposed to be dead soft anyway and the accidental hardening is what caused it to break in the first place.:grumpy: :(

Damn! I hope I caught you in time!:eek:
 
Thanks for the advice Yvsa. I figured that it might harden a little but that it would still be tough, since I would just air cool it as opposed to quenching.

I have some 1/2" M.S. square stock, that will probably work, but I thought it would be easier to put the handle on the round drill rod.

I'm away at school right now anyway, so I won't be able to weld until this weekend anyway.

Edited: Oh, and the part of the blade that I ground away to extend the tang wasn't hard at all. It ground and filed very easily.
 
Khukuri Monster said:
I have some 1/2" M.S. square stock, that will probably work, but I thought it would be easier to put the handle on the round drill rod.
Click to expand...
You can round off the corners on the square stock which would work nicely, or just buy another piece at your local hardware store.
The 0-1 automatically hardens, to an extent, when welded and even Dan's suggestion of annealing it, although good advise, could lead to further headaches with the 0-1.
Even after welding with the mild steel it would be a good idea to anneal it to keep any possibility of the 5160 from hardening.
When my cuz Orville welded the Sirupati that I was repairing, and then gave to him, he was able to use the piece of tang that broke off to repair it.
He then annealed it slow to prevent further problems.
When welding any kind of hardenable steel it can be a tricky situation, even after annealing.:(

Also when he was welding it he said that the steel had some kind of problems as it appeared to have an almost glass like material that kept sputtering through as he was trying to weld it.
Orville finally just ground it all away and started over and the weld came out very solid and has had no further problems.
The same thing could be what caused yours to fail after all the time passed.
My theory on the glass like substance is that the kami got some flux in the weld as he was folding the steel and didn't get it all pounded out.
That was the problem old timers had when they were forging plain old iron and trying to pound out all the inclusions
inherently in the steel.
The addition of flux is necessary in order to be able to forge weld. An overly amount or lack of the necessary amount of flux both have their own set of evil's.:(
To much flux and it's difficult to pound out and too little gets incomplete welds which show up from time to time as evident in some of the khukuri blades.
The HI kami's are indeed masters at what they do, but even a master makes a mistake now and then.;)
 
I'd use a piece of iron or mild steel, like a common spike from the hardware store. Certainly not a tool steel like O1. Listen to Yvsa, he's forgotten more about metal working than I will ever know :confused: :D
 
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