Kukri WIP - The Bone Collector

[crimsonfalcon07]

Great project, I'm looking forward to seeing more updates. I hadn't heard of the CA finish before; always nice to learn something new.

 

[Karda]

Nice Blade, Patrice!
Not my thing, but very nice looking.
There is one thing bothering me that could make or break this as a chopper, and it's something you may wish to consider before final assembly and epoxy......
The brass spacers on the handle must not be directly fitted to the tang. There must be some space for epoxy/laha between the two or there is the potential to get shock from chopping which may travel up the tang into those spacers and give you a not nice and sometimes very painful blast between whichever fingers are stradding them. On traditional khukuri, there is always plenty of laha between the tang itself and the handle material, not only to allow for better adhesion, but also to act as a buffer for shock to the hand.

EDIT: I just re-read and realised that this is supposed to be a takedown model, so epoxy isnt going to be an option.
I'd suggest giving it a try and seeing how much shock will transfer through to that handle ring. My guess is that there will be some.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Karda, that is a very interesting point I had not considered.
The thing is, this will not be epoxied, it's a take-down. There are no alignment pins int the centered spacer but it is a pretty tight fit. Would loosening the fit a bit help?
It is still pretty tightly held between the wood and the bone so I could probably loosen the fit by a few thou but not sure it would be enough. I will sharpen it tomorrow and put it together so I can cut a few 2X4. I will post the results and how it felt.

I appreciate your input and the good words.

PS: Sorry, posted without seeing your edit.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Ok, I lied, another small update. You know I could not stay away.
I rarely get time to work in the shop this early in the week but I figured I'd better find some time if I want to finish this for next week.

The guard was ok but I wanted to add a little “humph” and also accentuate the fact that this is a knife of Nepalese origin. Well not this particular knife of course but Khukuris in general. So after some thinking and a lot of prototyping, I settled on the word Bone in Nepalese. Well I sure hope thats what this means and not “laughing chicken” or something.

First, the design is printed on some vinyl paper (sticky on the backside). Since this is printed with an inkjet printer and that the ink doesn't dry, I used some watercolor varnish to seal everything. Worked real good.

A little time with the magnifying glasses and an exacto knife and we have a nice resist for the FeCl. I would have liked to engrave this but I am not good enough for that yet so I opted for acid etching.

Now since I don't want to dip the whole thing in FeCl and have to protect all the surfaces I want to leave intact, I make a little cup around the design using some window putty. Not sure it's the right terminology but that what I remember my Dad using it for when I was but a young lad. The important thing it that it is sticky enough to make a tight seal and also not degrade because of the FeCl. But it is a pretty weak acidic solution so this should do the trick.

Now just fill it with FeCl and leave to work for 3 hours which should give us a deep enough etch.

And it did. Looks nice. I am still not sure if I will fill this with black paint or just use the antiquing I will do to the whole guard to darken the etch.

Now time to work on the “vertebraes” and do some dying tests. My wife said I should leave them bright white but I am not sure. I am afraid that if I don't give them some kind of coloring, the shape will be washed out by the bright white color.

What do you think?

 

[David Stifle]

Patrice, if you buff the bone with scrathless pink compound, they will turn a very nice mellow yellowish/amberish. Please don't try to dye them, it seldom works out well (I know).

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Thanks a lot for the tip David, I will give that a try.
The dying attempts so far are less than satisfactory as you said although some produced interesting results for future projects.

 

[Karda]

Karda, that is a very interesting point I had not considered.
The thing is, this will not be epoxied, it's a take-down. There are no alignment pins int the centered spacer but it is a pretty tight fit. Would loosening the fit a bit help?
It is still pretty tightly held between the wood and the bone so I could probably loosen the fit by a few thou but not sure it would be enough. I will sharpen it tomorrow and put it together so I can cut a few 2X4. I will post the results and how it felt.

I appreciate your input and the good words.

PS: Sorry, posted without seeing your edit.

I wouldnt loosen the fit between the wood and the bone, it likely would make any shock worse.
Many people have at time complained of Shock from Chiruwa (full exposed tang) blades. Generally the tang on these is ever so slightly recessed into the handle to prevent the exposed tang from protruding into your hand. Between this, the use of laha underneath the scales and softer nickle-silver pinning, prevents the transfer of shock. On Stick tang models the tang and bolster basically "floats" inside the handle filled with laha. The only place the tang contacts the handle material is at the peening on the end. Basically on both models the Shock is mostly absorbed by the Laha.

I would give it the chopping test and see just how much shock tranfers. It could be minimal and tolerable or it could feel like the darn thing just broke your fingers. This will give you an indication of what to expect and how much you'll have to work to mitigate the problem. With these type of choppers there is always some shock. The trick is to mitigate it so that the blade does not feel like you are whacking boulders with a 2x4.

My suggestion would be to figure out a way to put a rubber grommett (or other isolative measure) between the ring and the tang, consider leaving the ring recessed as the other one or leaving it off altogether.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Karda, while I have you here, let me pick your brains about that large ring. I included it in the design because you see it in almost all traditional Khukuris. I wonder for a long time about it's use. The only plausible explanation I a came up with is that it makes you grab the handle with your first 2 fingers, keeping a looser grip with the last two and that this is much better for hard chopping.
Am I even remotely close?
I would really like to keep it as is since not much else on this one is traditional.
Thanks for your help.

 

[Karda]

Karda, while I have you here, let me pick your brains about that large ring. I included it in the design because you see it in almost all traditional Khukuris. I wonder for a long time about it's use. The only plausible explanation I a came up with is that it makes you grab the handle with your first 2 fingers, keeping a looser grip with the last two and that this is much better for hard chopping.
Am I even remotely close?
I would really like to keep it as is since not much else on this one is traditional.
Thanks for your help.

http://www.himalayan-imports.com/Construction.html

Handle rings - traditionally-made khukuris usually have a number of rings carved in the centre of the handle
"Kami Sherpa thinks the rings and little ridge once had a definite meaning of some kind -- almost certainly to do with religion -- but he says today nobody really knows what the meaning is or was. He points out that the configuration is fairly rigid. A pair of rings down maybe 1/4 of the handle length from the bolster -- small space and another pair of rings -- then the ridge with a single ring in it -- a final ring just below the ridge. Personally, I find it very interesting that almost all good kamis use the same configuration but none of them know why they put it on the handle or what it might mean". -Bill Martino

On most models, i myself am most comfortable with the ring between my little and ring fingers.
I have to admit, when i first found khukuri, i was not a fan of handle rings. Now that i've had the pleasure of using and getting used to them, i wouldnt have very many khukuri without them.

The raised ring aside from religious significance, is there to aid in retention of the blade by the user while chopping, slicing or thrusting. With most things Nepali, the simplest solution is often the most effective and timeless.
The technique you describe is what is called the "snap cut" on the HI forum. Holding the khukuri as you describe with a little forward wrist snap of the khukuri into the target at the last moment. If this technique is practiced well, it allows the user to make the khukuri do the chopping instead of the users arm and helps greatly with soreness and fatigue.

 

[David Stifle]

Patrice, I forgot to mention you need to sand the bone before buffing. The higher the grit the more "ivory-like" it looks.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Thanks for all the information Karda.

David, I tried buffing the bone with pink scratch-less after sanding to 400 grit and it doesn't give any coloring, it is bright white. It is also very shiny which is nice but like that it looks almost like plastic.

 

[silver_pilate]

Patrice, how are you dying the bone? Would changing methods (i.e. airbrush with dye) have any impact on allowing you to get the look you're going for?

--nathan

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Nathan, I am dying by application or immersion, and it has more to do with how the bone absorbs the dye so not sure airbrushing would work any different. I am playing with texture and it's weird, a rougher texture seems to give a more uniform absorption and a finer finish, a more blotchy one.
I appreciate the suggestion, thanks.

 

[silver_pilate]

I didn't know if, with an airbrush, you could make a uniform pass, and then specifically target areas more heavily/lightly as needed on subsequent passes depending on how the bone absorbed the dye. Either way, I look forward to seeing it all finished up.

--nathan

 

[David Stifle]

I've also got an old look by dropping a few drops of ink in water and brushing it on the bone. Gives a nice grayish look, but it you have already started to dye it that won't work. You can also turn it a light brown by submerging the bone in coffee grounds. Sorry the buffing didn't work.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Thanks Nathan, now you've done it. Airbrush added to the "ToBuy" list.

Thanks for the tip David, interesting. That generates another bunch of idea in my overactive noggin. I finally went with tea to dye the bones.

Just to tell you guys that the Khukuri is finally done. Not perfect but it looks good enough and I have given all the I had to give to this particular knife.
Photo session today and if all goes well I should have pics posted on Sunday.

Almost 20K views. I sure appreciate you guys following this. :thumbup:

 

[Willie71]

Nathan, I am dying by application or immersion, and it has more to do with how the bone absorbs the dye so not sure airbrushing would work any different. I am playing with texture and it's weird, a rougher texture seems to give a more uniform absorption and a finer finish, a more blotchy one.
I appreciate the suggestion, thanks.

The pores in the bone are more open in the rougher sections, the smoother areas are more closed off, with more variation in absorption. I haven't worked with bone, but see this in wood a lot. In wood we use a prep solution that opens the pores. I am not sure if it would work on bone. Try a scrap piece and see. It will be available in any larger store that has a good selection of wood finishing products, but the professional supply stores usually have the good stuff, not the watered down stuff the local stores use.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Thanks for the tip Willie, I will keep that in mind for future projects.

Well I messed up the pictures yesterday so I have to take some new ones today. I hope to have some to show you guys tomorrow.

 

[JParisi48]

Congrats on finishing it, that was one heck of a WIP cant wait to see pics!!!

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Joe, glad you liked it. Still a few more pics and of course I will add the sheath to the WIP when I finish work on it.

So without further ado, here are the last interesting pics before the reveal. Most of the work was just tweaking and finishing so not much worth showing.

As I had mentioned, I needed to check how the Khukuri performed. I am no metallurgy expert and this obviously won't be used that much but I still want it to be a decent cutter. First the mandatory hair shaving test.

And with a temporary handle, cutting a few hard enough 2X3 I had laying around.

It does cut pretty well. Of course the handle is not the most ergonomic. I did try it once more with the handle finished and there was no excessive vibration as was anticipated. The “snap cut” technique that Karda mentioned works extremely well and is perfect to take advantage of the forward weighted design. I can see myself cutting all day long using it. Well maybe not all day but a lot longer and without the blisters I would get with a full grip.

I sanded the CA finish on the wood to about 1200 grit and polished with a couple of coats of Mothers Carnuba wax. I have to see if I can find a wax that will give a shinier finish. This one was ok but a little on the mat side.

And finally, some pics of the different dying techniques I tried. Some leather dyes, wood dyes and tea. The bright one was without any dye and as you can see it was a little too white for this project. I am afraid it would was out and not show the shape of the vertebrae that well. I settled on the tea.

That's about it. Two photo sessions taking pics (not my favorite part), and I am still not happy with them. Focus was not quite there on the first ones and now they are underexposed. And I was shooting tethered to the laptop so I should have caught it.

I'll do my best to have the glamor shot for you tomorrow night. Sorry.