Kukri WIP - The Bone Collector

[Patrice Lemée]

Thanks for the good words.

We now move on to the mill. I tried a few different ways to clamp the blade down but I could never get a rigid enough setup so I gave up and simply used the vise. It worked nicely, should have tried that from the start.

Of course while trying other ways to clamp it down I broke not one, but two 7/64th carbide endmills.

Here is a what it looks like after almost all the mill work is done. A few times during a build I come to a point where I question:
1) My ability to translate my artistic vision to the real world.
2) The artistic vision itself.
3) My own sanity.

This is one of those times. Just have to have faith that in the end it will look ok.

After some more cleaning up on the mill I decided to try a carbide burr in the Foredom to refine the cutouts a little. Well as you can see from this picture, that 5160 chewed up my nice burr. Some parts of the blank are definitely harder than others. From now on, when I build a knife, I need to find out more about how to normalize the steel before I work on it. Tooling, especially carbide is not cheap and I can't keep ruining it like this.

So back to to good old files.

And of course while at it I broke a chainsaw file and stabbed myself in the finger with it. But on the upside the blood sacrifice for this blade has been shed. Of course that doesn't mean the blood shedding will stop anytime soon.

More to come...

 

[JayGoliath]

According to the myth of Khukuri, it has basically made you his master. The ceremony is complete.

 

[tryppyr]

Patrice... let me know if you need some nice handle material. You know I have more than I'll ever use, and you're welcome to some.

 

[theevilmike]

Looks good Patrice
Thanks for another WIP

Mike

 

[Stubai]

Simply wonderful. You are quite the craftsman!

 

[Patrice Lemée]

You know what COW BONE means in knifemaker talk.....BOVINE IVORY

That's too funny. I have no idea how I will resist the urge to use that in the knife's description.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Thanks for your offer Greg. I will make it with the material that I have on hand but if I am not happy with the results, I'll take you up on that. :thumbup:

Jay, I actually did not get cut by the knife itself. Does it still count?

Thanks again for the good words guys.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Now this knife will need a temporary handle so I can test it after heat treat. Since it would also help me get a feel for the weight and balance, might as well do it now.
I used the mill to slot the handle halves for the tang. I need to buy a router extension thingy that I saw Bruce Bump use on a Dremel. It would be much easier and the mill would not be covered with wood dust.

Handle installed. Looks ok, maybe I just put an edge on it and call it done.

I also realized that I forgot one of the cutouts on the handle side so I did that on the mill and did a little more cleaning of all the cutouts. We are still very far from it looking good but I am slowly feeling better about it.

I think I'll do a few more passes on the main grind so time to re-scribe where I want my grind line to stop.

Ok, time for a change of pace so why not move to the guard? I had planned on a classic guard you can see on most Kukris. Yeah right. Started working on a wood mock-up. As you can see the mock-up split in 2. Note to self: use good hardwood instead of cheap pine for mock-ups.

Refined the shape a little. Not exactly what I want but I think we are going in the right direction.

I think that I did enough work on it for now, well in the shop anyway. Now I need to spend some time at the designing table to see how I can refine what I've done and blend the components together. I also need a clearer picture of what the handle will look like.

Thanks for watching and hopefully the next update won't be too long coming.

 

[jonnymac44]

Interesting stuff Patrice:thumbup:

Looking forward to more buddy!

 

[JayGoliath]

Patrice,

I'm thinking if you want to taper that handle a bit towards the pommel?
It should help with the balance wee bit? How much weight did you shed upon the removal of materials on the blade itself?

It looks like a set of teeth to me..

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Thanks Jonny.

Jay, the weight as of now stands at a hair under 26 oz.
I guess you are talking about the tang. It is too wide of course but I wanted to make sure I have enough to make the threaded end. I will have to get it to final shape at some point but the thing I am not sure yet is the curvature of the handle in relation to the blade. I may have to straightened it out a it. Got to look at more Kukri profiles to compare where I stand on that.
The bad thing is that I just had a light bulb moment and this Kuk might make a big leap over to the artsy side. Got to ask my friend first if it's ok with him.

 

[savagesword]

Great thread!! Loving it

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Thanks savage

Now that I know where this is going I started work again.

First a little cleaning of the cutout. This pattern will give you a good hint of the name that popped in my head and will be the driving force behind this build...

The Bone Collector.

That will make you understand the next pic a little better, maybe not like it but understand at least. This is only a mock up, not to scale, but gives you a good idea of what the handle will look like. The “Bone” part will be the lower part of the handle. The front part that, the one you grip the most of the kukri will be wood.

Hope you like it...well don't hate it at least.

 

[thegeek574]

You never cease to make me think about something a little differently and stretch my opinion of what I can stand . The name looks like it fits.

 

[Matt Markell]

Wow. I think?



Just kidding Patrice, it's definitely going to be different but I think you can pull it off. If, in the end, everyone hates it, well, I guess I could take it off your hands for disposal

 

[Patrice Lemée]

You never cease to make me think about something a little differently and stretch my opinion of what I can stand .

I am happy to hear that. :thumbup:

Matt, it's a gift for a friend but if he doesn't like it, I'll keep that in mind.

Thanks guys.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Did a little grinding but the knife is still a hefty 26oz.
I have to take it down from 0.250”. Also got to figure out where I am going to put some taper in this beast.
Jay told me that I should start the taper where the blade starts to curve, all the way to the tip. Guess I should still leave the tip on the “meaty” side.
If you have any Kukri experience, feel free to chime in.

 

[quint]

Looking good man. Thats a really cool idea for the handle setup overall design. Sorry cant give ya any help on the tapering. I would leave some meat on toward the end but thats me. I dont have any experience in these guys though.

 

[Shawn Hatcher]

Did a little grinding but the knife is still a hefty 26oz.
. . . If you have any Kukri experience, feel free to chime in.

Just my opinion, but I'm usually less concerned about overall weight and much more concerned about how that weight is distributed. The distribution of the mass will dictate where the center of percussion is.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Here is a pic to make sure we are talking roughly about the same thing. I drew where I thought was this sweet spot. So I am guessing leaving some thickness there and tapering towards the point.
I was also thinking about some tapering towards the handle as this is still plenty thick (0.250&#8221 after all.
Am I close?

I also straightened the tang a wee bit since I think there was a little too much curve in it. From all the Kukri pictures I've looked at, the handle is more in line with the spine.