- Joined
- Aug 4, 2004
- Messages
- 373
I broke a 15" Ang Khola some time back, and now that I've got some time off, I figured it would be a good idea to fix it. This khuk may look familiar to some of you, that's because this is the broken khukuri which caused a bit of shakeup over at BirGorkha.
The original thread: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=317652
and the response: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=318341
The pictures that I have are kind of high resolution, so I'm just putting a link to them so they won't screw up the text formatting and run off the screen.
Here's the whole assembly:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~robgaunt/pics/fixkhuk/fixkhuk1.jpg
The handle is made of a piece of hickory. I only did some rough shaping, I think I may shape it some more later. The picture also looks really dark, I think this may be due to the jpeg compression. The handle does not look that dark and dingy at all, but is a much lighter color. It looked pretty nice when I put some tung oil on it.
I made this handle a little differently than a normal khuk handle, it is slightly asymmetrical and it the back bulge is larger on the left side. Also, I spaced the two "rings" such that one of my fingers locks into place between the rings, and one behind the last ring. The handle is also slightly larger so I can place only one finger or three fingers behind the ring, depending how much leverage or control I want. I kept testing it while shaping it, and this just kind of felt comfortable for me.
The tang, which broke off, was extended by welding on a 1/2" round piece of steel. Instead of just using epoxy, I brazed the brass bolster onto the khuk. I had never brazed anything before, so this turned out kind of messy. I used a MAPP gas and oxygen torch, available at Home Depot, and some "Low Fuming Bronze" brazing rod, which was flux coated, also available at Home Depot. It was simpler to do this than I expected.
Here is a picture of the weld:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~robgaunt/pics/fixkhuk/fixkhuk2.jpg
I accidentally blew a hole in the brass bolster, where the brass was a little thinner, when I kept the torch in one place too long. I noticed that the brass bubbled when it melted. I think this is a sign that it isn't very pure brass. However, I just filled the hole with braze. Hopefully, this will make a very strong bond with the blade.
While brazing and welding, I had to be careful to keep the blade cool, so I kept it wrapped in a wet cloth. The blade heated up slightly, but the part which turned a straw color only extended a 1/2" or so, which doesn't affect the cutting portion.
Going back to the first picture, you can see that I tapered down the end of the 1/2" rod to about a 1/4" diameter or so. The buttcap slides over this tapered area. Then I would peen this over to hold it on. The buttcap is the same buttcap that came off the old khuk. I drilled out a larger hole and reshaped it slightly. It doesn't fit perfectly, and looks really ugly. But, since this is going to be a beater knife anyway, I don't care.
I had considered other options for attaching a buttcap. I thought of getting a 1/2" nut, and then cutting threads on the tang. The nut would hold the handle on. You could use a washer, but I don't think this would be necessary. I think that would actually look kind of interesting, if a little bit goofy. But I used the peening method since I don't have any dies to cut threads and I would have to borrow somebody else's.
To put everything together, I used some 2-ton epoxy mixed with hickory dust. I filled the bolster up with this mixture, and covered the tang and the end of the handle. Then I assembled the whole thing.
I had problems shaping the buttcap to fit the curve of the back of the handle. I would hammer it down on one side and it would pop up back on the other side. So I just filled the small gaps with a goop of epoxy and sawdust.
To peen the end over, I set the knife point downward on a stump and started beating on it with a 4 lb. hammer. I think I overdid it. The khukuri was driven about 2" into the stump and was tough to wiggle out, and I had hit the thing so hard that the bolster was being jammed into the handle, the bottom half of the bolster was bent inward and on the top, the handle began to splinter. This splintering wasn't serious, just some surface cracks, which I coated with some epoxy, and when it dried, I sanded the bolster flush with the handle.
Here's a picture of the whole Khollection:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~robgaunt/pics/fixkhuk/fixkhuk3.jpg
The fixed khuk (a 15" AK), a 21" Chainpuri, and a 27" AK. Again, everything looks dark. This is irritating me since it doesn't turn out that way when I look at it on the camera. It must be the lower quality compression. Either that or this monitor is getting old and doesn't show the color properly.
I made another mistake in fixing this knife which I think I should mention. I think the handle ought to bend downward more, like you see on the AK. This was a problem with welding on the tang, I should have had it bent downward at a slight angle.
This whole project was not as difficult as I expected, and didn't take too much time either. I feel that I got a pretty good deal out of this "disaster" of breaking a khukuri, a free replacement (the Chainpuri, a great knife), plus I get to keep this fixed one. Thanks, Uncle Bill, for your excellent warranty policy.
The original thread: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=317652
and the response: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=318341
The pictures that I have are kind of high resolution, so I'm just putting a link to them so they won't screw up the text formatting and run off the screen.
Here's the whole assembly:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~robgaunt/pics/fixkhuk/fixkhuk1.jpg
The handle is made of a piece of hickory. I only did some rough shaping, I think I may shape it some more later. The picture also looks really dark, I think this may be due to the jpeg compression. The handle does not look that dark and dingy at all, but is a much lighter color. It looked pretty nice when I put some tung oil on it.
I made this handle a little differently than a normal khuk handle, it is slightly asymmetrical and it the back bulge is larger on the left side. Also, I spaced the two "rings" such that one of my fingers locks into place between the rings, and one behind the last ring. The handle is also slightly larger so I can place only one finger or three fingers behind the ring, depending how much leverage or control I want. I kept testing it while shaping it, and this just kind of felt comfortable for me.
The tang, which broke off, was extended by welding on a 1/2" round piece of steel. Instead of just using epoxy, I brazed the brass bolster onto the khuk. I had never brazed anything before, so this turned out kind of messy. I used a MAPP gas and oxygen torch, available at Home Depot, and some "Low Fuming Bronze" brazing rod, which was flux coated, also available at Home Depot. It was simpler to do this than I expected.
Here is a picture of the weld:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~robgaunt/pics/fixkhuk/fixkhuk2.jpg
I accidentally blew a hole in the brass bolster, where the brass was a little thinner, when I kept the torch in one place too long. I noticed that the brass bubbled when it melted. I think this is a sign that it isn't very pure brass. However, I just filled the hole with braze. Hopefully, this will make a very strong bond with the blade.
While brazing and welding, I had to be careful to keep the blade cool, so I kept it wrapped in a wet cloth. The blade heated up slightly, but the part which turned a straw color only extended a 1/2" or so, which doesn't affect the cutting portion.
Going back to the first picture, you can see that I tapered down the end of the 1/2" rod to about a 1/4" diameter or so. The buttcap slides over this tapered area. Then I would peen this over to hold it on. The buttcap is the same buttcap that came off the old khuk. I drilled out a larger hole and reshaped it slightly. It doesn't fit perfectly, and looks really ugly. But, since this is going to be a beater knife anyway, I don't care.
I had considered other options for attaching a buttcap. I thought of getting a 1/2" nut, and then cutting threads on the tang. The nut would hold the handle on. You could use a washer, but I don't think this would be necessary. I think that would actually look kind of interesting, if a little bit goofy. But I used the peening method since I don't have any dies to cut threads and I would have to borrow somebody else's.
To put everything together, I used some 2-ton epoxy mixed with hickory dust. I filled the bolster up with this mixture, and covered the tang and the end of the handle. Then I assembled the whole thing.
I had problems shaping the buttcap to fit the curve of the back of the handle. I would hammer it down on one side and it would pop up back on the other side. So I just filled the small gaps with a goop of epoxy and sawdust.
To peen the end over, I set the knife point downward on a stump and started beating on it with a 4 lb. hammer. I think I overdid it. The khukuri was driven about 2" into the stump and was tough to wiggle out, and I had hit the thing so hard that the bolster was being jammed into the handle, the bottom half of the bolster was bent inward and on the top, the handle began to splinter. This splintering wasn't serious, just some surface cracks, which I coated with some epoxy, and when it dried, I sanded the bolster flush with the handle.
Here's a picture of the whole Khollection:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~robgaunt/pics/fixkhuk/fixkhuk3.jpg
The fixed khuk (a 15" AK), a 21" Chainpuri, and a 27" AK. Again, everything looks dark. This is irritating me since it doesn't turn out that way when I look at it on the camera. It must be the lower quality compression. Either that or this monitor is getting old and doesn't show the color properly.
I made another mistake in fixing this knife which I think I should mention. I think the handle ought to bend downward more, like you see on the AK. This was a problem with welding on the tang, I should have had it bent downward at a slight angle.
This whole project was not as difficult as I expected, and didn't take too much time either. I feel that I got a pretty good deal out of this "disaster" of breaking a khukuri, a free replacement (the Chainpuri, a great knife), plus I get to keep this fixed one. Thanks, Uncle Bill, for your excellent warranty policy.
