Help ! Damaged 20" Thirtha made AK from DOTD

T

teclis22

Joined
Jun 10, 2009
Messages
325
Hi guys.

I was chopping with my AK Kuk today and something terrible happend.

Please see included pics:

http://i838.photobucket.com/albums/zz309/teclis22/HIMIMP/ZirkusJuli011001.jpg
http://i838.photobucket.com/albums/zz309/teclis22/HIMIMP/ZirkusJuli011006.jpg
http://i838.photobucket.com/albums/zz309/teclis22/HIMIMP/ZirkusJuli011002.jpg
http://i838.photobucket.com/albums/zz309/teclis22/HIMIMP/ZirkusJuli011003.jpg
http://i838.photobucket.com/albums/zz309/teclis22/HIMIMP/ZirkusJuli011004.jpg
http://i838.photobucket.com/albums/zz309/teclis22/HIMIMP/ZirkusJuli011005.jpg

Things went really well, chips of wood flying. I had set it up on our saw block to make sure i do not hit anything other then wood. the wood itself was comperativly soft, nothing out of the ordenary.

I payed attention to make sure i dont blotch anything and still this happend :/
It was the first real chopping test i did with it, the small tiny branches all went without a hitch so i decied to take on something larger.

Can this be fixed or is the Kuk toast ?

Help is much appreciated.

tec
 
Yangdu will do the verdict, but that looks pretty screwed up.

I can't really imagine what went wrong unless you have steel-reinforced, organically-grown trees. That doesn't seem likely, so I would wager that it's toast. You might cut and sharpen until you have something smaller, but if it couldn't handle wood, this will likely happen again.
 
Looks like the heat treat problem. I will give you credit for future purchase.
Sorry for the damaged blade
 
Since you already have credit for a replacement, I'd be tempted to takea grinder to it and see what I could do to make it serviceable again. The blade will be quite a bit slimmer once that damage is ground out. You have nothing to lose by trying. I'd be interested in seeing pictures if it is returned to service.
 
hi guys.

thank you for the feedback.
much appriciated yangdu. i write you an email concerning the order.

@howard i dont have a grinder. i am woefully understacked with power tools. :/ but when i can acquire one i will try and post the results.
 
Teclis, I'm trying to understand what happened. Did you accidentally hit the metal saw horse, or did the wood do that damage? I could see the metal saw horse doing that, but every bone in your body would have felt that hit:eek:! Either way, something tore into that blade. That was such a beautiful khuk! Sorry for your loss, but better in the yard than in the woods. If you're going to be chopping big wood, you should put that credit to work and see if Auntie has another Sarge K Bonecutter. Good luck and I'm glad you weren't hurt. Take care.
 
Unbelievable! I have seen chips on the sweet spot due to too much hardness and a metal or stone target, but this sweet spot rolled from WOOD as if it was never hardened. Sorry for your loss. What are the odds!

Great and fast customer service from Yangdu as ever! Love HI.
 
@howard i dont have a grinder. i am woefully understacked with power tools. :/ but when i can acquire one i will try and post the results.
Click to expand...

Do you have a drill? Preferably with a stand for it?

There are small grindwheels/benchwheels (buffer wheels?) or similar tools that you can attach to just the drill. Not quite as good a proper benchwheel set, but it can do the job.

It will likely bit a bit dirty and messy, especially if you are doing this for the first time. Advice: try to stay symmetrical and focus more on getting rid of the unneeded metal rather than trying to make it completely sharp. Use stones for that.

An example of what I use, it's Hungarian but there is a picture. Again, I only use this when there is a lot of metal to remove. They should be cheap.
 
Ouch!! Sorry to see that you had a problem. Yangdu is the best person I've ever done business with.
I haven't had any problems with my C-bit, Tamang, or Khadka Bonecutter. I haven't used them that much, and I only chop with the Bonecutter. Well, I have chopped twig sized branches with the Tamang. Since it's not intended to be a serious chopper (though it's better than most non-HI knives for chopping) I limit it's chopping duty to pruning small limbs from tulip poplar and mulberry trees in my yard. Small enough limbs that one swing slices through them with very little force.
I think the tamang would also be great for butchering small game and fowl. Don't know, haven't tried it yet.
The Bonecutter seems to be great for chopping anything wooden. After confirming last year that it's not intended for actual bone cutting, I decided not to void my warranty by trying to use it as a femur buster. I have a Fiskars axe that will do fine for that, and is a lot cheaper to replace if I screw it up. Plus, I have the benefit of owning a couple of Indian made Khuks that get used as beaters.
The HI knives are much better performers(and much nicer all around), but if I'm going to abuse something, it's going to be a 25 dollar Indian Khuk, not a $200+ HI Khuk. I couldn't live with myself if I destroyed the fruits of Sgt Khadka's labor.
Besides, my lifelong best friend just gave me some leaf spring sections, a stainless steel double-sink, and an old hand-cranked Champion forge blower.
I have an anvil, tongs, and hammers. I plan on making King Kong's meat cleaver from leaf spring. I have a section that is 1/2" thick in the middle and runs about 8 inches before it tapers. It won't take too awful much to make it into a cleaver with a 1/2 thick spine that tapers nicely toward the handle.
It'll probably be bone ugly. It'll definitely be heavy. It won't be HI quality. It'll probably be considered crude. But it'll bust through bone like nobody's business, and it only costs me some time, sweat, and coal to make and to replace it if I screw it up.
I second the opinion that you should get a Bonecutter. I absolutely love mine. It looks like the Khadka BC from 7-27, except that mine has an M43 handle instead of a CAK handle. I have to be careful when I use it for light pruning. It could easily blast through small limbs and continue on to chop body parts off of me.
That would be bad.

Maybe after I move, I'll set up my blacksmithing shop again and make a few King Kong meat cleavers. If I make them nice enough, I may send one to our lovely Auntie Yangdu for evaluation. She may just decide to get the kamis to make some beastly cleavers. Maybe not.
Before I can get back to forging, I have to do some work on the blower. I need to set up a 55 gallon barrel as an electrolytic rust removal tank. I need to make new bearings for the blower. It's seized up and the wooden handle has long-ago rotted away.
 
thanks all for the comforts its much appreciated. awesome community :)

no, i didnt hit the steel frame of the wood holder. they are over 1 feet apart. I was only hitting the wood. Holding the Kuk between thumb and index finger, the other fingers wraped loosely and then close the grip shortly before the blade hit the wood. I dont know if the damaged happend in 1 blow or if it started slow, i didnt inspect the blade after each individual hit. The feeling just changed after a couple of hits and when i inspected the blade the pics are the result.

I dug through the forum a bit and found a "whack test" ? Not really sure what it is yet. But something you do on a new Kuk it seems. I havent done that when i first got the AK maybe that would have revealed any HT issues ? Can someone explain the procedure of what to do and how to "test" a new Kuk ?

Thanks a lot.
 
teclis22, where are you located? Maybe one of us can help you try and regrind it. This probably wasn't "user error" since you don't have power tools and it doesn't look like you have thinned the blade out its probably heat treat (rare but it does occur). I've whacked large rocks and metal fence posts (in the process of clearing underbrush not intentionally) with HI blades not rated for such and I"ll get 1/8" to 3/16" nicks in the edge that can be honed out. Don't think I've ever nicked the edge on my 20"AK but not from lack of trying:D
 
Jaymo, good luck with your forging endevours. I have little doubt that you will make servicable blades. It takes much skill, and sometimes a little luck. I look forward to your producing an 12 inch tin chirra blade. As you say, it is not possible to reproduce HI quality with a few hammer strokes on an anvil. I am veering off topic, so perhaps you may post in the makers forum? I love khurkri, especially because they are handmade, at so little cost, and with great skill, with minimal tools. Cheers, Mike.
 
teclis22 said:
I dug through the forum a bit and found a "whack test" ? Not really sure what it is yet. But something you do on a new Kuk it seems. I havent done that when i first got the AK maybe that would have revealed any HT issues ? Can someone explain the procedure of what to do and how to "test" a new Kuk ?

Thanks a lot.
Click to expand...

Others could probably explain better than I, but I understand the whack test to be part of Uncle Bill's new khuk testing regimen. Part of the test was to place the end of the blade into a secure place and lean into the handle. If it bent or broke, it failed (I used the fork of a tree for this, and leaned into the handle of my khuks). Then he would "whack" the blade's spine and sides on something solid. He gave it some good hard chops and the test was over. That's what I recall from the HI website, but believe it's more or less correct. UB said if it failed any part, it wasn't up to standard for HI. Be safe when testing, as always. Take care and good luck.
 
Thanks to Kroil penetrating oil, I got the blower apart today, except for the gearbox. The gearbox and all nuts/bolts are now soaking in a 5 gallon bucket of used Dexron/kerosene.
With any luck, I can get it apart this weekend and find out how hard it will be to resurrect.
 
I dinged a really nice Bura khuk last week hacking down some Himalayan Blackberry briars. Didn't realize there was a piece of rebar sticking up out of the ground till i heard the CHINK! Won't take much to fix it, though. Actually not too bad for hitting an edge against a steel bar. Also managed to hit a hidden concrete block. Not recommended...
 
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