Kailash Blades
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2015
- Messages
- 776
Hey guys! Hoping to put a lot more of this kind of thing up in future, basically highlighting a knife and showing it go from a sketch all the way through to the final blade. This one's already completed but hopefully we'll do some buildalongs soon so people can see these knives progress.
One of our customers got in contact with us and asked if we could make a moro panabas. These are broader and more powerful than other styles and we're very well suited to this style of blade. Not only because we excel at making very large blades but also because there's a lot of crossover between the techniques used to make this in the Phillipines and traditional nepali bladesmithing. We insisted that we make a few changes though, both for durability with the full length through tang but also so could put a Nepali twist on things. The style of bolster, wrap style and braided cord are all Nepali features. A pretty simple sketch, but all we needed for the smiths to know what to do.
After a couple weeks wait we started on forging. A blade this big requires a 3 man team to bring it down from leaf spring over a few hours as there's a lot of material to move by hand. If it was any bigger we potentially may have had to forge it from railroad track. Grinding takes another day and cleans up any profiles while also finishing the bevelwork that was started when forging.
Making an octagonal bolster (Kanzo) was a bit of a challenge but the end result was great.
A full length through tang gives us a lot of strength while also giving a lighter, more traditional balance and all wood grip that a full tang can't. In order to make that happen we need to burn the wood in and then pin it in place before shaping. This process also anneals the tang as different areas are heated, leading to a very tough tang which is unlikely to break.
And here's the knife in the hands of Mandip Rasaily, it's maker. From here it will have a stacked leather sheath made and have some traditional weaving added for a grip in much the same way as the original moro blades.
One of our customers got in contact with us and asked if we could make a moro panabas. These are broader and more powerful than other styles and we're very well suited to this style of blade. Not only because we excel at making very large blades but also because there's a lot of crossover between the techniques used to make this in the Phillipines and traditional nepali bladesmithing. We insisted that we make a few changes though, both for durability with the full length through tang but also so could put a Nepali twist on things. The style of bolster, wrap style and braided cord are all Nepali features. A pretty simple sketch, but all we needed for the smiths to know what to do.
After a couple weeks wait we started on forging. A blade this big requires a 3 man team to bring it down from leaf spring over a few hours as there's a lot of material to move by hand. If it was any bigger we potentially may have had to forge it from railroad track. Grinding takes another day and cleans up any profiles while also finishing the bevelwork that was started when forging.
Making an octagonal bolster (Kanzo) was a bit of a challenge but the end result was great.
A full length through tang gives us a lot of strength while also giving a lighter, more traditional balance and all wood grip that a full tang can't. In order to make that happen we need to burn the wood in and then pin it in place before shaping. This process also anneals the tang as different areas are heated, leading to a very tough tang which is unlikely to break.
And here's the knife in the hands of Mandip Rasaily, it's maker. From here it will have a stacked leather sheath made and have some traditional weaving added for a grip in much the same way as the original moro blades.
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