Kukri WIP - The Bone Collector

[Eric Kidwell]

Hi Patrice
IMHO, it looks way better with the hollow grind. I think it will all flow together much more.
Keep up the great work.

 

[Shawn Hatcher]

I must have spent about 3 hours on that fuller I just ground away.

I think we've all been there, Patrice. Work on something for hours only to realize you don't like it and then grind it all away!!

 

[doc trinidad]

beautiful work so far!

 

[David Stifle]

Patrice, I suggest you slap a temporary handle on and see how it handles. That way, you will be able to more accurately judge how the weight affects handling. You may be pleasantly surprised. Looking good so far!

 

[Frank Niro]

Pat ,
have you concidered bringing the fullers far forward, with a gentle increase in size and then narrowing out, in gental arcs? Yes I do realize the blade is hardened. It might require the bones be given a hollowed out profile, but I'm sure the looks and weight distribution of the knife will change dramaticaly and I'm seeing this to be for the good. At this point, the fullers seem to look like they shouldn't be there, but of course are functional. The styling flows so very beautifully on the outside of this blade, but seems to be coming up short as to the inside patterns you are incorporating. Once again , just my perspective for an art knife and only how I see it can be done. The quality of the work is first class without a doubt !!! Stay with it, no mattrer what path you take. It is one of your's. Frank.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Thanks again for the good words and your support guys. :thumbup:

David, I did make a temporary handle and took a few swings at a 2X4. You are right, gives you a really good idea of how it handles and I am very please with the balance so far.

Frank, not sure i understand what you mean in regards to how the backside is hollow ground now. I will get rid of the upper plunge and blend the grind going up. Maybe this is what you mean.

 

[Frank Niro]

Perhaps I should have kept my comment to myself since you are saying that you will be doing further, but with respect, what I meant was to scoop the center of the blade, both sides so if ran something like a bannana from close to the front to right back to the start of the present fuller near the ricasso area. The scoop was to only go down to the "bones" on each side. Please continue, friend, in any manner you wish. Frank

 

[David Stifle]

Patrice, if you take a look at the Himilayian Imports site you will notice their kuk's have quite a weight range. If you come in at 22 oz. you have a pretty light blade, even at 28 oz. you'd be fine. looking forward to seeing the finished package.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Frank, please don't keep any ideas you have to yourself. If it can't be applied to this particular knife, believe me it gets saved for future projects. I just meant that I understood your idea in regards to this pic:

But wasn't sure how it applied to the latest state of the blade:

...back to the start of the present hamon near the ricasso area...

Sadly there is no hamon, well I don't think so. This is 5160 so I don't think the clay will have produced anything.

David, I'll go take a look at the Himalayan Imports site, thanks.

On a side note, I am going to go pick up some brass for the guard and pommel this afternoon. I still want to keep a few things traditional and brass is what I often see being used for those. I would have liked Bronze but I don't know where to get some.

 

[JParisi48]

I found this, http://www.farwestmaterials.com/com...ndry-materials/bronze-everdur-detail?Itemid=0 I read that people use it for sculpting, and its only 4.00 a pound. I dont know if you can use it or not, but I figured I would give it a shot

 

[Frank Niro]

Pat.
AKS - Alpha Knife Supply, has bronze and in small pieces at very good inexpensive prices. They will send you the smallest things if you order. They are great people !!! Frank

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Joe, I will take a look at that, thanks. I don't know much about bronze and what type is best for this application. I'll have to do some reading.

Frank, that's prefect since I have been needing an assortment of G10 for spacers and had planned to order from AKS. I'll see about adding some bronze to the order. Thanks.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Let's get back to it.

Before moving on to the handle I've decided to get rid of that definate upper plunge line and blend the grind into the top portion of the spine. Still some smoothing to be done but I like it much better that way.

Now for the guard, like I said before I want something a little more traditional so made another wood mock up of a simple oval guard. I will need to spice it up a little of course but I like how the more traditional shape looks.
But now the ricasso, that I had left over-sized for the first guard, looks too big so we need to plush the plunges back.
I am also on the fence about the cho, that little cutout near the plunge. I drew something on with a sharpie so I can look at it and decide if I make one or not.

Next step is the wooden part of the handle. Getting the angle right.

Yep, that's about right. Tracing the outside of the tang on the wood to know where to drill.

Drilling with the drillpress. If the curve of the tang is really pronounced you can drill from both side to meet in the middle but I think we can get away with a straight hole in this one. Pus we are going to bed it tang with epoxy lather on.

Homemade broach to clean up the hole and make it squarish.

Random pic of sanding sticks. Although you develop a few favorites, you still have to make one from time to time for a special application so in no time you will have a as many of these as hammers or vises.

Time to move the plunges back so more layout blue.

Sorry, this pic was taken after the grind because I forgot to take one before. But I wanted to show that laying the blade flat on the side of the bench really helps when it comes to placing and tightening the filing guide.

Looks better?

More to come...

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Now that I am happy with the guard shape, time to make it for real. Cutting the brass on the POS bandsaw. Never could get it to work that good. It is only used to cut bar stock now.

Making things flat on the mill until I get a surface grinder.

Sorry, I forgot to take pics of a few steps, namely cutting the slot (again with the mill) and finishing the fit with files.
When the fit is close enough, the guard is driven on with this gizmo copied from Nick Wheeler.

I decided to do the cho so here is what the Khukuri looks like as of now.

Not sure about the big ring in the middle of the handle being made of bone. I will probably change it for brass. I also really need to decide where to go with the pommel.

Thanks again for following along. Stay tuned.

 

[JCoutts]

Patrice, that is coming along great!! It looks wonderful to me.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Thanks J, glad you like it.

Before we start on the large round spacer in the middle of the handle (traditional Khukuri feature) we need we need to have a little better idea of what the “vertebrae” will look like, size wise at least. A little work on the oscillating drum sander.

And also some rounding of the wooden part of the handle to get a general idea of what the handle shape will be.

This time I took pics but most of you have seen this before.
Slotting with the mill

Cleaning up with files

Once the press fit is done we make liberal use of the trusted highly sophisticated removal device. Hey, it works.

Lots of shaping to do but I think it looks better this way than with a bovine ivory ring.

More tomorrow.

 

[CM Forge]

Awesome Patrice!

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Thanks Curtis.

On a side note, the weight is back up to 2lbs 10 3/4 oz. That's with the brass pommel. I'll post pics later tonight. Although that sounds heavy it is surprisingly well balanced. But I will still shave down some weight for sure. I do understand now when someone told me that when you hold a Khukuri, you just can't help yourself from looking around for stuff to cut to shreds.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Time to bed the tang. Or is it bed the handle? Not even sure if bed is the right term. Maybe a gunsmith can shed some light on the proper terminology. Anywho, I use to do this with petroleum jelly but Nick Wheeler (guess you guys know by now where I get a lot of my inspiration ) said he used wax (Johnson in his case) so I thought I'd give it a try. This one is Antiquax, containing carnuba and bee's wax. It's what I had on hand and it smells nice. You apply a thin layer on anything you don't want the epoxy to stick to. I am putting on a very thin coat to hopefully get the best fit. If all goes well I'll have put on enough for the epoxy not to stick too. Fingers crossed.

After I applied some to the faces of the vertebrae, I clean up the inside really well with acetone. You want to make sure you get the best possible adhesion in there.

Mixed some epoxy (the 5 minute kind), filled the cavity and made sure it was aligned properly.
Now we wait for it to harden. I really hope Nick is right. Well I know he is right so I think it's more that I hope I did it right. If not and it sticks...let's not go there, positive thoughts Patrice.

Nick is the man! Boy did it work great. :thumbup: Popped right off, exact fit and a lot less messy than petroleum jelly. Sanded everything flat and this is what it looks like.

We do the same with the second vertebrae. Just a little harder to align right hence the use of the other man's best friend: Duct Tape.

This is what it looks like with the spacer between the vertebraes.

I did the wooden part of the handle last cause I wanted to be sure the wax worked properly first. Cheaper to redo the vertebrae in bovine ivory than that nice piece of redwood burl.
Posted this pic not because of the process which is the same but to show the exacto knife. I found that it was the easiest way to put the wax on there, especially in the inside cavities like the guard. Of course this is way too much wax, you wipe it down after you are sure you have some everywhere. You only need a thin film so you get a nice tight fit.

Another pic that is repetitive but I wanted to talk about the handle fit. The inside fit was pretty tight to start with so I had a hard time getting the epoxy to flow to the bottom of the cavity. I need to leave a little more room or find a way to heat up the epoxy a bit so it is thinner and flows better. Or both.

Next we'll start work on the pommel.

Stay tuned.

 

[Salem Straub]

If not and it sticks...let's not go there, positive thoughts Patrice.

I had to laugh there. I know this feeling exactly. I'm happy it worked out well for you, nice work, Patrice.