My khukri woes

[-Switch-]

(Yes, yes I know I've spelled khukri wrong )


Recently I ventured into town to a pokey little military collectors shop to see what bargains I could unearth. This shop has a 3-tier wire cradle full of old bayonets, khukri's and machete's and while rummaging around I found a battered old khukri blade.
It was nothing to look at - no handle, quite a short tang, absolutely covered in rust and no cutting edge whatsoever. There was the faint trace of what used to be a grind but the actual edge was as blunt as the back of the blade. And the feel of the steel was... well... cheap.

''Hmmmmm...'' I thought, ''...I could completely restore this knife and have myself a beautiful, usable khukri!''



How wrong I was.

With my very limited knowledge I managed to get as far as taking the rust off the blade and giving it a good clean-up before I realised I'd bitten off way more than I could chew.

Grinding a completely new edge on it from scratch with nothing more than 2 old stones and a cheap file has near-enough killed me and I'm not even going to attempt fitting a new handle. So I've stopped where I am, before the air turns permanently blue, and admitted to myself - I just don't know enough to do what I wanted.
It was a good idea but I'm going to need quite a bit more experience before I attempt something like that again.

''What the hell's your point Switch?'' I hear you ask.

Well, my point is that I've got a rust-free, fairly shiny khukri blade in need of a good home.
If you can do what I couldn't and turn it into a good usable knife then it's all yours, absolutely free, on the condition you post some pics of the finished article, maybe a little step-by-step or something.

PM me if you're interested.

EDIT: Actually, don't PM me as I no longer have it! It went pretty much straight away
Thanks anyway for reading


Cheers,

-Switch-

 

[cubankopite]

i know what you mean switch i am in the process of restoring (hopefully) an old axe that i found in my dad's shed and a hedge knife i like you have all the rust off and i have a resonable edge on the hege knife but it's hard going and at times you think 'just go out and buy a new one' but i'm hoping it will be worth it
just as an other point which do peoplr prefer axe or hege knife i know this has been covered and i don't want to hijack your thread i'm just courious

 

[-Switch-]

I restored a camp axe recently and really enjoyed it and I'm in the process of doing a small bushy knife but that khukri just got the better of me. It was getting an edge on the blade that did me in - I'm just not used to the khukri shape of blade. It's very hard to sharpen near to the handle. At least it is when you're using my tools
I just figured that someone else could do a much better job and I'd be better off concentrating on my little bushy

 

[OldJimbo]

I sure love fixing up old axes and blades. Probably the best first purchase toward that end was a cheap little 1x30" belt grinder with disc. Later I followed that with a totally cheap angle grinder. Without those I don't believe that I'd have gotten too far!

 

[Moff8]

Try the Himalayan Imports forum, plenty of folk there who can help you out. I don't go on much myself anymore but lots of nice people.

 

[pierre girard]

I sure love fixing up old axes and blades. Probably the best first purchase toward that end was a cheap little 1x30" belt grinder with disc. Later I followed that with a totally cheap angle grinder. Without those I don't believe that I'd have gotten too far!

I had a friend who used to sharpen knives for half the butchers in town. His secret was a belt sander such as you mention.

PG

 

[OldJimbo]

I've sure had fun with my power tools. I got the belt grinder to help in making handles for knives out of local wood. Mostly though, I've used it to refinish big blades. I love seeing good axe heads appearing out of what would seem to be rusty junk!
The significant point for me in this thread is that while a person can always get hold of a cheap grinder and find lots of old tools to practise on, a good philosophy of life is a very hard-won thing. It tells lots about you, Switch, that you didn't just throw away the blade, but went to the trouble of passing it on.

 

[TAHAWK]

(Yes, yes I know I've spelled khukri wrong )

Not a bit of it, mate. Kukri, khukri, khukuri - all good. We're just trying to capture a Nepali sound in English lettering, and the closest might be khukuri or coo-k-ree.

And I sympathize, having started up on at least one khukuri restoration that I may leave to my son in my will --- if I don't snag a belt-sander.