Ontario Kukri - uneven blade grind (not edge)

W

Wowarning

Joined
Feb 1, 2015
Messages
31
Posted this in general discussion first and it was recommended to post it over here. My situation is this - I ordered an received the Ontario Kukri from Amazon and was unimpressed by the uneven grind on the blade. The right side is uniform and appears perfect, but the left side of the blade has more material removed (actually notched in a little at the top rear) and there is an area about 2/3 up the blade where too much material was removed making a slight wave/depression. At first I thought the blade was bent, but the right side is perfectly straight, so I realized it was a problem in the manufacturing. I exchanged the blade with Amazon and the replacement is identical. Is this normal for this blade? I'm torn as to whether I should keep trying for a blade without these issues, or give up and get the Condor Heavy Duty Kukri. I also don't know if my expectations are too high and this type of poor manufacturing is normal for this blade. Am I being too picky? I did a lot of searching but didn't find others discussing this. (To be clear - I'm not talking about the edge bevel. That's a bit wonky at the front of the blade and left side too, but I can deal with that. I'm talking about the actual blade grind on the left side.)
 
A pic showing too much material removed from left side of blade

DSC02060.JPG
 
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I'm a big fan of Ontario Knives but I would not be pleased with that at all.

I wonder if that is not a factory second you got from Amazon, Ontario does sell them... just a thought.

The OKC rep is very active on this subforum :thumbup:, I'm sure you will hear from him ( or her ) on what course of action you should take and what options are available to you.
 
Oh man, I just bought an Ontario Khuk from Amazon for my fathers birthday, and i REALLY hope that is isn't like this... :/
 
Wowarning,

Sorry to hear about your Kukri, and especially that a second one came that way. Hopefully Toooj (our Director of Engineering and an active member of this forum himself) can shed some light about what causes that or if there might even be a reason for it that I'm not aware of. Instead of going through Amazon, if you give send a message to knifesales@ontarioknife.com, we can replace it ourselves and take a look to make sure it's right. Let them know you talked to me here and they'll keep me posted. I'll also ask them to keep an eye out for a message from you.

It tends to be that if a problem can happen once, it can happen again. I would hope though, and it has generally been my experience, that getting two knives with problems is incredibly unlikely. We'll also take a look at some of the Kukri's we have in stock.

Thank you for letting us know here so hopefully we can make sure you still end up with a knife you're not just happy with, but thrilled with.

Brboru,

Thanks for jumping in with the note and for the vote of confidence. I take pride in making sure this is a good outlet for getting in touch with us. As for this possibly being a second, hopefully Amazon or the Amazon Marketplace seller would have indicated as much, and we mark them with a number 2 before shipping. If someone was really determined, they might successfully pass one off as a first, but it probably wouldn't have been hard for Wowarning to figure out that was happening.

Beachmaster,

As I said above, it's pretty uncommon to get a knife with a problem (I'm kind of stunned by hearing of Wowarning getting two). If there is an issue though, use that same knifesales@ontarioknife.com email and/or comment here. Sadly, there's just no way to make it so that every knife goes out perfect, but the two things we can do are to work on getting as close to that as will ever be possible and stand by every single knife in case something does go wrong.
 
Outstanding! I cannot tell you how impressed I am by the quick reply and genuine concern. I will do as you suggested. As far as it being a second, Amazon LLC was the vendor, so I highly doubt they would be trying something like that. It appears to me that whatever machine or person is grinding the left side of the blade has problems. The right side of both blades was perfect. The picture is actually the first knife, but I can take a pic of the second blade as well and post it as a comparison. The problem is pretty identical on both.
 
Here are some pics of the replacement

DSC02081.jpg


You can see how wonky the left side is...
DSC02085.jpg


and the bevel near the tip on the left side varies wildly
DSC02088.jpg
 
wowarning,

Sorry for the late entrance. (Been very busy as of late)
As OKC Mod said; Please contact Ontario Customer Service with the issue. They will take care of you with an exchange. I'll probably go personally into the inventory to inspect and get you a good one.
As far as the explanation; Steel sometimes warps/bends after Heat Treat. Sometimes it is straight and it bends/warps during the grind operation. Having said this: That is pretty excessive and it should have never gotten as far as it did.

Again; please contact Ontario CS and we'll make it right.

Hope this helps,

Best Regards,

Paul Tsujimoto
Director of Engineering
Ontario Knife Company
 
Thank you Paul. I have already corresponded with your team and am returning the blade. I would obviously greatly appreciate it if you or someone else looked over the replacement for any issues. I continue to be extremely impressed by OKC and will continue to buy your products with confidence knowing that the company stands behind their products and genuinely cares about their customers. It's like a breath of fresh air in today's society.
 
Yesterday I got an SP10. Very similar issue on the grind. I've been trying to fix it but finally realized to much metal had been removed originally and I am not able to fix this. I was planning on sending it back to Amazon but I guess I'll try OKC's CS first. I've really been wanting this knife and now I'm really bummed
 
chunga said:
Yesterday I got an SP10. Very similar issue on the grind. I've been trying to fix it but finally realized to much metal had been removed originally and I am not able to fix this. I was planning on sending it back to Amazon but I guess I'll try OKC's CS first. I've really been wanting this knife and now I'm really bummed
Click to expand...

Hate to say it but you might be stuck with it since you tried to " fix " it yourself... curious as to how you tried to fix it.

I would have left it alone and returned it to Amazon.

Maybe it's just me but there seems to be a recurring theme with faulty knives coming from Amazon, not just OKC's either. One might be better off paying a little more from an actual knife shop than trying to save a few dollars by purchasing from Amazon.

I just recently purchased a SP10 from my local Bass Pro Shop and it has no issues whatsoever.
 
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I wonder how or why that would matter, but maybe you are correct. OKC should receive my return Monday, I will update this thread with the final result. They seem extremely helpful. Btw - I am also curious how one could fix too much material being removed. Kinda hard to put it back on, lol.
 
Too much material was removed for about 2 inches from the hilt. The angle of the grind on that entire side of the blade was different than the other side. I fixed the angle on all of it except those 2 inches--I tried but it just wasn't working--it started to look worse. I have gotten a lot of knives from Amazon over the last couple years--this is the first time I've had a problem.
If OKC can't help because of my efforts to fix it I will just return it to Amazon
 
I have one of these from the same online retailer and I double checked mine and it was fine. Yours was defimately a "lemon".

Mine has been used and sharpened many times (5 years). It is one of the best values IF you like the blade shape. It performs everything 1095 does in a knife that size.

You should be good to go with the new one. I put Canola Oil on it for protection and NO rust issues in Florida. Canola oil is really an industrial oil thats been GMO to make it safe for us to eat. It works great on knives but I would never eat any. YMMV
 
Holy crap. You peaked my interest so I did some Googling and damned if you aren't right. I'll save the canola oil I have left in the cabinet for my blades, lol. Thanks for the education!
 
Yea--thanks unklfranco--I just started using mineral oil--had been using Remington gun oil. I will pu some canola oil and try it out and I agree--do NOT eat that stuff LOL
 
I use mineral oil, but maybe I will use canola oil also.

I got the khukuri off Amazon for my dads birthday... let me just say...


It is PERFECT! The entire edge is hair shaving sharp! The balance is perfect! I have to say, I like this khuk better than the sp5 or sp10 by FAR. What an awesome and under rated knife!
 
i got some OKC knives so far , those knives are well made tools but none of them are even grinded , but not a big deal for me and no one seriously bad grinded like op's .

i really hope that OKC can escalate QC ， looking forward to it.
 
dingy said:
i got some OKC knives so far , those knives are well made tools but none of them are even grinded , but not a big deal for me and no one seriously bad grinded like op's .

i really hope that OKC can escalate QC ， looking forward to it.
Click to expand...

Quality control has been a major area of focus for us recently. Toooj and his team have been working hard and doing a great job, and I think we're really seeing that pay off. If you have something that has a bad grind, feel free to reach out to knifesales@ontarioknife.com so we can take a look and see about getting you a new one.
 
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