my Bud K Gurkha Kukri Knife

[jamaldog87]

well i order this knife on Monday at 12:45pm from amazon.com and it got here from the USPS at 11:01am(this was standard delivery. i guess because there in GA and i am in FL that why it came so fast).   The knife came wrapped up in  paper and oily plastic that took about 1min to clean off.  when i saw the size of this thing and the way it looked the song in a gadda da vida started playing in my head cause this thing is very bad A## looking and i wanted to run outside and start cutting stuff with it ( it looks like the Afghanistan Khukuri) . now  i readied some of the reviews about this knife and someone got the alloy tested. here is what they found out "I tested the alloy and it appears to be about .5% carbon. It may be 1050 to 1060 or could even be one of the more complex alloys like 5160. Any of these alloys are appropriate metals for this type of blade. Depending on the temper, they can all take a lot of abuse. The two "eating knives" that come with it are simply junk. They are very cursory. Poorly formed of heavy sheet metal glued to a block of wood and roughed out on a grinder. Now, here's the weird part. The metal in the small knives tested as high-carbon. (I think they are 1080 or something like that"
 
the  knife is a full tang and  the handle is  some kind of red to light brown hardwood that is riveted onto the blade and ground to shape along with the metal. The butt plate  very well fitted and well polished and is riveting the end of the tang. The blade is very well polished(also very thick) and theirs  no machine marks at all on the knife(it has a very hand made look and feel to it, almost like it was made in the jangle somewhere). I have heard about how bad the sheath is for this knife but the one i got is well made and looks just like the Nepal Army Khukuri sheath. Now there was extra dye on it that took about 2min of cleaning with a dry rag to clean off.
 
the knife is heavy and feel right in my hand. I gave it a very swings and the control was very good,it was like having a Japanese short sword or wakizashi. I own a unknown maker wakizashi and it has better feel and control then that(this knife wants to chop something, it calls for it). I love this thing and i am very happy with it,t has the looks and feel of a knife of 55  dollars. now  the bad news it's  it's not very sharp to dull. I have readied from other reviews that it's able to hold a razor edge after 1st sharpening so that now to bad. i do own other swords and long blades and i have heard to get them imported into the US they can't be sharp and the dealers when they get them sharpen them. I don't know if this is true or not but many blades i have bought were not very sharp when i got them.
 
So know i got to sharpen it and i don't know how. I have a wet stone i use for my heavy machetes and a handheld knife sharpener i use for my Dexter Russell chefs knives and other fine kitchen knives.  Can i use the wet stone or the handheld knife sharpener on it or should i use something else?

[Bugflipper]

If the edge isn't sharp at all the cheapest way I found is to use an old cynder block. 
Mark the edge of the blade with a sharpie. You want to hold it at an angle where the whole black line is being removed and not just a thin section of the black. The best way for me to describe it is the exact opposite of a coated blade knife. http://www.eseeknives.com/esee-5.jpg The sharpened silver part is what you want to paint black. Do the same amount of force and same number of strokes on both sides. This is to keep the correct angle. Too narrow and it dulls quickly and will break off the  edge. Once you get the edge sharp you can repeat the marker and put it on a medium or fine wet stone. If you want it very sharp sandpaper works pretty good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vplOsEUgwIg


For big recurve blades the lanksy type kits work better than anything else I've tried. But not really the lansky brand for a kukri. It only goes up to 30 degrees. You probably want 35 for green woods and 40 degrees if you are going to chop on hard wood like hickory or oak. This is a good one that goes up to 40 degrees. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JntWcNezmho&feature=player_embedded


On a machete and kukri I do the end at 35-40 degrees because it is the part used for chopping. The first 6" or so near the handle I do at 20-25 degrees so it can be used like a knife if needed. The kukri you bought has good steel and FL has a lot of softer woods so 35 degrees would work fine. 30 would probably be good for a normal machete because there is not as much weight behind them, they are thinner and they generally have softer metal than that kukri. So not as much stress would be on the edge.


Good luck.

[rdlange]

OK, so you got the monster real thing and it fits... GOOD.  Too big for me.  The Amazon model fits me better.  Ghurkas are small folks like me.

You can use a regular two grit, gray, hardware carburundum stone, alot of elbow grease and patience.  A fancy sharpener will probably cost more than the knife. (just remembered I carry one of those round, hockey puck shaped, two grit axe stones with mine)

The edge bevel is probably curved, not flat like a chisel, so follow it.  Chops better.  Flat bevel is more precise, but delicate and can chip or roll over. 

You'll like it this knife.  It should serve you well.

[Dand]

Keep us posted on how this knife works for you.  I have been thinking about them for a long time.  I have a cheapie Cold Steel kukri that works ok but sometimes isn't heavy enough and doesn't hold an edge long.  I got an Ontario Kukri - 1095 steel, and it holds an edge but the grind is too flat  and the blade a little too light to make a good machete - it tends to stick in thicker branches - would be a formidable fighing tool tho.  On both of these I have been using an oval diamond kitchen sharpener that is about 8 or 10 inches long - think I got it at Walmart for modest price.  The oval profile makes it easier to sharpen that inside curve of the blade - but doesn't leave a real smooth edge. 

[jamaldog87]

OK, i will try to remember to up date you guys on it. The main reason i pick this knife was the reviews i saw on youtube(and amazon) about it and the way it looks. Unsharpen it still makes a very powerful stabbing weapon that will at least on 3 liter soda bottles full of water, make a very large bleeding wound and it cost 14$   shipping to get on amazon.com (Bub K sell a lot of there stuff on there for a lower cost). So that why even that i know before hand it would come unsharpen, i got it.
 

[jamaldog87]

Ok, I have sharpened this thing, did a little research on it and tested it out. Because it was raining and we lost power in our area I only have one pic's of a test cut so bear with me on this.
Ok well to start off as you know I got this on amazon for 14.99, now i did not think it was a "real" Gurkha Kukri Knife but it is. It's a mass made blade that is made in  India out of  very hard and dense carbon steel( as I will tell you later) and the handle is constructed of  haldina cordifolia hardwood which is an  acid-resistant hard durable  heavy hardwood   wood found in Burma, Cambodia, India, Thailand  and is used for house construction, boat building, and for furniture. this knife is sold under other names and on others sites but it's the same knife, Cas Hanwei used to sell  this very same Khukri for 44$ sharpen. Now the reason why it's 14-20$(at bud k it 19.99) is that it's unsharpened, when sharpen it sell for 34$(http://kultofathena.com/).  From what I have seen it seem this is the same as the real  Gurkha Panawal Jungle Kukri  that is unpolished and made of rough use. To save money they skip the long machinery process of getting shinned the initial temper  and  it give a more raw knife, also they use the cheaper cousin of Indian rosewood haldina cordifolia wood  . to me they made these to be a farmer Kukri in  India  for their own market and there sold here in wholesale as an Gurkha Kukri Knife  to make it cost more to the yanks. So it's a India panawal farmer Kukri not a but made just as well as the Gurkha Kukri Knife. (Don’t believe me? look up a Panawal Rust Free Farmer Kukri and the budK one and tell me there not the same.  Also someone else got this knife alloy tested and they said “It may be 1050 to 1060 or could even be one of the more complex alloys like 5160).

So on to the knife!  I have found many ways to sharpen a kukri. there was the way like what you guys said, other people that got this knife told me to use a filing and sharpening with a carbide, and then a ceramic sharpener, gave it a sharp edge, on YouTube under easy way to sharpen a kukri there that way with sandpaper, there is using a lansky puck and then there using a grinding wheel.  I used my Aluminum Oxide Sharpening Stone with some water to sharpen it. I am not very good with a stone and I made the mistake of using the fine 120 grit to sharpen this unsharpened blade and the wrong degree angle and so I scratched the blade some.   It took about 10-30mins to sharpen it on the stone and I used a handheld knife sharpener to clean the edge up a little giving it a sharp edge.  for same reason the inside curve got really sharp and the rest of the blade not so much
here what it looked like after sharpening

up close

even unsharpen if you it as a  stabbing weapon it will go throght a man(pass throught a EZ chair  like it was nothing)
I can tell you from sharpening this thing it very hard metal. My 440 stainless steel knifes and other  swords  take on one pass with the carbide hand sharper to give them a shaving edge , even my CRKT M16Z with it AUS 4 stainless steel with a Rockwell hardness of 55-57 it take one pass. This knife after 5-10 pass it did no better than the stone.  Now it’s on to testing and I use 3 tests to see how good it is. The 1^st test is the 1 gallon full of water milk jug test and I used me Ninjato as a control for how well it can cut. It gave a rough but good cut and the Ninjato give a very clean smooth cut like butter. Next up was the soda cans cut were I set up soda cans full of water side by side to see how many it can cut  and then toss a few in the air to see how well it does on a moving target. It did better than my other weapons on this and cut the metal cans better than the rest. Now last was the wood cut. Here it did extremely well cutting the down a small tree with 3 hits

as you can see i cut the tree saplings that was about 5 1/2 feet tall in half down the middle of it. i also cut some tree branches off a  Javanese Bishopwood with one hit with it and it was the same with the soft wood breanches. I try it on a  maples tree and it made a small cut on. there was no sticking with the softer woods like pine but when i tryed the hardwoods we have around here there was sticking ( oak  and maple  i guess are very hard woods to cut)The wood handle work very well as a shock absorber and even when wet it was easy to hold onto.
here what it looks like after all of that


the edge was still very sharp after all of that and i cut up some more jugs with it.  i now know how the sharpen it after some trial and error and really sharp now.  Those scratches are from my stone from the 1st time i sharpen it not from the wood.
 
All in all i would say it's a good farmer Kukri  and in someones hands that know how to sharpen it right it will be as good as a real Gurkha Kukri.  One thing, be very careful if you get the belly of the thing sharpen.  I don't know why how it happen but the inside curve got   REAALY sharp and i forget and cut my hand(i had on leather work gloves so it was not that bad).

[Bugflipper]

All three steels you listed are correct for one. They are made from leaf springs off of junked vehicles. The most common is 1060 for leaf springs. They are tempered at 500-600 degrees, which gives them a 55-58 rockwell hardness. The curve is ground to a steeper angle so it can be used as a knife. When they butcher goats it is used like a draw knife pulled towards them along the bone to get the meat off.

[jamaldog87]

I see, i did not know that. One of the reviewer tested , i just thourght all carbon steel was the same.  If leaf springs for cars are made as hard as this knife then i see why they can take so much force.
 
here is some pic's of things it cut(found some of the stuff after the water was gone)
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg112/rabbitwolf/stuff%20to%20look%20at/021-4.jpg
 
this one is about the size of the tree i cut down the middle(it looks taller becuase i am on a hill)
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg112/rabbitwolf/stuff%20to%20look%20at/022-4.jpg i start at were the V meet and cut from there.
 
Up close you can see how thick the tree is http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg112/rabbitwolf/stuff%20to%20look%20at/023-1.jpg
 
the  here is a log from the maples tree i was cutting on(the city cut down some of the tree becuase them fell half way down).
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg112/rabbitwolf/stuff%20to%20look%20at/024-1.jpg
 
up close of what the knife did to the maple
 
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg112/rabbitwolf/stuff%20to%20look%20at/025-1.jpg
 
and last a palm tree that i tested the knife on http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg112/rabbitwolf/stuff%20to%20look%20at/026-2.jpg  take note  of how many palm fronds are gone from the top area(it was cut back some already but all the palm fronds on the ground  are from me).
 
I have a qustion, I was told to keep the knife from rusting(this is FL ) to wipe down the blade once a year with vegetable oil or once every few weeks of heavy use. Is this correct?
 
also when cutting things  with a Kukri is it best to make a downward cut like i was split a log or do i make cuts with it more like a sword(angle cuts like with my Ninjato) ?  i have been watching a few of the coldsteel videos to get a idea on how to best make cuts with a kukri but i am unsure.