Wootz Khukuri Blade?

Yvsa I have seen sword blades with the tip wired to the handle in the city of Damascus, but it was over thirty years ago and I've no idea what ever happened to them. They were old and patterned and as I recall, they would spring back to straight if the wire was undone. I have the pleasure of knowing an excellent bladesmith who forged two knives for me a couple of years ago. They were made from Harley chains given to him to make a commissioned trio of knives for the top three execs at Harley Davidson. There's a LOT of steel in a chain and I was lucky to get the two knives for my brothers made from the remainder without having to buy a new chain. Also, they come with certain bragging rights since they are from the same chain, so my brothers, both Harley riders, treasure them greatly. I even was lucky enough to video the forging! If someone wanted to commission a khuk by this guy to serve as a model, I guess it could be arranged. On the other hand, I am not anxious to take any bread off the table of the kamis or UB!

Stephen
PS: The bowl STILL hasn't found me. . .

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Micah 6:8. Well worth the attempt!
 
Achim,
Some of the best Damascus I've ever
seen was made by Guild Member WILD BILL CALDWELL! His Steel is called Hobsens Choice.
jim
 
Besides experimenting to make wootz i make pattern welded damascus, too.
I began reading about that stuff at age 8, in 1969, in the Deutsche Waffenjournal. There was a series of articles of the then and today well known damascus smith Manfred Sachse from Rheyd, Germany, which is only about 40 miles from where i live. Mister Sachse travelled the world in the 60s and 70s and collected informations about pattern welded steel and wootz from different cultures. He made Damascus a decade or two before Mr. Moran "discovered" it.
There are several very good smiths, both old and new world, who make pattern welded steel today. My favorites are Pierre Reverdy from France with his "Damas poetic", Ulrich Gerfin from Germany for his metallurgic skills and Steve Schwarzer from the USA, who makes beautiful mosaic damascus.

Achim
 
Yet another good illustration of why we try here ( and mostly succeed ) to show "Joe Blow" who pops up out of nowhere on this forum some courtesy, respect, and friendliness. Too many of those "Joe Blow"s turn out to have mind boggling credentials and knowlege.
 
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Tom Holt:
There's at least one outfit in India mass-producing pattern-welded steel blanks at (by western standards) very low prices. No idea what the quality's like.</font>
Click to expand...

That sounds like Windlass ... they bought out Atlanta Cutlery and Museum Replicas and sell their stuff through their catalogs. The Windlass damascus is pretty but it's mild steel, suitable only for wall ornaments.

Bear makes some low-buck pattern-welded blades, but they don't make khukuris.

-Cougar :{)
 
If it's advertised as 512 layer damascus, it's almost surely Windlass. They are the ones who advertise "genuine Indian govt. gurkha issue" khukris. And they did buy out Atlanta Cutlery and Museum Replicas Ltd. Depeeka is on the same level.
 
We recently had the possibility to test 5 swordblades from this indian 512-layer-damascus on our HRc hardness testing equipment. The blades tested around 55 to 58 HRc at the edges. I don't think that this is typical wallhanger performance. If so, the HI Khukuris are wallhangers, too (which, in my opinion, they aren't at all!).

Achim
 
It doesn't surprize me their damascus is better quality than I've experienced with the other items. For the price charged, it would have to be.

I've seen Windlass put out good useful tools at reasonable prices and I've seen the same exact item later that was junk. QC for this industry seems slipshod as a rule.

The importer/seller's name and reputation seems to be the key here. I've seen and heard great appreciation for Kris Cutlery's stuff, but the worst POS I've gotten was also Phillipine made.

 
I think Rusty's hit the nail on the head; the Windlass stuff is like the little girl in the old poem. When it's good it's very, very good, and when it's bad it's - yeah, well; can't use that kind of language on this forum...

I don't see this as being the fault of the guys actually swinging the hammers in India. The problem lies, IMHO, with the purchasers for the Western retailing companies, who don't ask the Indian smiths "How *well* can you make a blade?" but "How *cheap* can you make it?"

I reckon that one of the main reasons why HI products have such a fabulous reputation is that Bill has never *ever* compromised on quality.

If the Indian damascus blanks contain the necessary proportion of carbon steel, it's a sure thing that the guys at BirGorkha will be able to make a fine khuk out of one, since they'll be the ones doing the heat-treatment (which AFAIK is where 99% of the problems with Windlass products arise)

Just imagine a silver-mounted damascus AK kothimoda made by Bura...

[WARNING; drooling over your keyboard can cause damage to moisture-sensitive component and should be avoided.)
 
When Pala was visiting here he mentioned the Indian kamis. They pound out hundreds of khukuris each day just to survive, with the khuks selling for about $3 American each, which is what a scabbard at Birghorka costs to make.

Bob
 
Windlass has been promising an improvement in quality for some time ... some swords appeared that were only slightly better ... it sounds like they really have improved now, though. I'll have to stop warning people away from them.

As far as I know Windlass is the only factory in India making pattern-welded blades.... Do you know if the blades you tested were made by Windlass, Achim?

-Cougar :{)
 
Uncle Bill, out of curiosity, have any of the BirGhorka kamis, had any experience with pattern welded steel?

------------------
Harry
 
I don'T know if they were from Windlass, but i sure know that they came from India, had 512 layers and were imported directly from a friend of mine. Prices for the blades only, ready to mount, etched and all, were between 350 $ for a Katana blade and 550 $ for a fullered viking sword. No swordsmith in Europe can concurrent with these prices.

Achim
 
I'm not a kukri buff, but I've just aquired an old one with a figure of eight pattern. The diamonds have a dot in then. Not sure but could be etched. It has a 13 inch or so tapered, hollow ground then flat ground blade, all so has an antler, very long, handle. Due to the horn the whole profile is S shaped and 22 inches long.

Will post picture as and when I can. However, could it be pattern welded, does anyone recognise this kind?
 
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