kukri course

[Dave Budd]

I've been meaning to have a crack at making a kukri for ages, but never quite got around to it. So when I had a request to learn how to forge one I was able to move it from the 'to do one day' list to the 'to do' list Going my the name of Big Andy (dunno why he calls himself that? ), this gent spent two days with me earlier this summer.

So starting with a piece of EN42J (1/4" thick), a forge of burning coke and a hammer, we beat out the blades...

Then the bent blades are checked for straightness...

And on to heat treating. The blades are normalised and brought to hardening temperature with my HT furnace...

Here they are cooling between cycles...

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the second day, in which we fitted the handles. Also due to the relatively complex handle assemblies we weren't able to finish them completely and so Andy had to take it home to complete This is where we left them...

Not too shabby so far, eh?

My blade (top) is 13", total length 18 1/2", Andy's is a little larger still! Handles are made from cherry, oak, copper and leather in my case and from oak, walnut, copper and I think cherry for Andy. The oak and cherry are from my woodland too.

And here is Andy posing with his new toy irate:

and my one finished and ready to move on to a new home.

 

[lannyman8]

nice work, love your sheath dave....

 

[brancho]

Looks like Andy enjoyed it and it looks like good work.

 

[TinkyPete]

Great work there, how hard was it to make and design?

 

[santaman2000]

Nice work but I sense something missing; I didn't see any mention of sacrificing a chicken and spreading it's blood about to bless the khuhuri. LOL

 

[Gill]

Very nice Dave ,i have to try one now.

 

[Mesquite]

That is one sweet looking blade Dave

Andy looks like a guy who didn't tickle the hot iron

 

[stekker]

Very nice indeed!
I like the combination cherry, oak and copper.

Theo.

 

[Dave Budd]

thanks folks

TinkyPete, how hard is it to do anything? first time is much more difficult that the hundreth! In fairness, this is a big knife so is physically quite hard work and the shape is tricky to get the proportions right from the outset (the preforms for a blade look very different from the finished profile, so the first time on a new shape is a bit of guess work). In terms of design, if you look to the right of this picture you can see the doodle that we came up with to base our blades on Also, this was the start of the forging so you can see the size stock we started with

 

[lannyman8]

hhmmmmm, wish i had some money for a propper course with you dave, as it is i dont even have enough money to drive down to you...