Making of the Kwog kukri

Well I had been looking on ebay for some time now and reading on what makes a good kukri. It seems to be hit and miss on quality from ebay and the shipping is what the knife is worth. I also was not ready to spend the money on well known manufacturer's product and I would have not had the enjoyment of making one myself.

After spending time reading reviews of various kinds I found that the Cold Steel Kukri was well liked for the price. I went to their website and saved a photo of their knifes profile. This was then inserted into Autocad and I drew over the top of it. I got a pretty close match.


It was time to find some steel. I had planned to just use some of whatever scrap I could find around the shop, but these had such low carbon content that they would not even harden. About two years ago they were throwing out this huge paper cutter and I took the blade out of the trash, I printed the knife full size and it barely fit! Blade is 0.150" thick and pretty heavy. Not sure what kind of steel this is but it should be some sort of tool steel. A cheap Cold Steel kukri is 0.108" thick.
OK, lets cut it out. Grinding and grinding. This thing looks a little too pirate for me so I think I will remove a little of the guards. I decided to go with a convex grind on the thick part of the blade where I will be chopping. The part near the handle will have a Scandi grind.

I need a handle, this twisted piece of oak I stomped off a pallet should do right? Oak's good stuff isn't it?Now were getting somewhere! It's looking pretty raw now.

More grinding and its time to make some smoke. Cherry the cutting edge + 3/4 in with a torch and dunk in oil, Stinky. Shouldn't have used a pan that held rotten smelling coolant from the mill. Refine the handles shape some more then its time for some brass pins. The pirate effect has been fixed.







This is where everything went wrong. I had everything in place and cracked the handle installing the last pin. Back to the drawing board on wood. Wood is not my thing so I just decided to laser cut the profile out of 1/4" aluminum plates.









After lots of wire wheel and sanding I am now to this stage. Time to elbow grease this thing. I got this blade so friggin hard. It takes forever to sharpen. The Convex just doesn't feel that sharp with your finger, but seems to make a good notch in a tree. The handle is actually very comfortable. It is contoured to fit my hand, notice the groove where my thumb comes over the top and the depression where my fingers sit on the opposite side at the bottom. As long as I don't lick it in the winter this handle should be just fine. I'm pretty happy for my first knife build. I have access to machines that made it go a lot faster than most people could do it but I think anybody could do this with some power tools. Still undecided on clearcoat or gun blue for a finish, let me know what you think, leaning toward blue.