In this video, I'm restoring a kukri knife. This is the national blade of Nepal, used for all sorts of daily tasks as well as being the melee weapon of the famous Gurkha warriors. Because of this blades heritage and history I really wanted to do it justice by using the best materials I could get my hands on to bring it back to life.
I started by removing the handle which was extremely worn out, delaminated and chipped. This revealed how the rust was absolutely everywhere, I then cut off the pins holding the handle in place using a hacksaw.
I used a new piece of equipment and technique this time by sandblasting the metal to remove rust, it worked pretty well but I need to make a few adjustments to my setup to get a better result. Following on, I ground the blades surface until all the pitting was gone, due to the amount of material I removed I needed to grind a new bevel and then remake the grooves on the upper portion of the blade (I made the engraver tool by sharpening the end of a punch)
I made the new handle from some gorgeous African ebony which I secured with epoxy resin and new brass pins. The ebony was a tricky wood to work with so I had to be extra careful when making the skirt on the handle so I didn’t cause any serious damage. I finished it off with a 1500 grit sanding and piling it with linseed oil.
Part of this restoration was the scabbard for the blade. It is incredibly old and the leather had dried up and was seriously damaged as well as the wooden slats underneath. I removed the leather, sanded the wood then I applied hardener to stabilise it and prevent any further rot. I then filled in all the damaged gaps with wood filler, sanded it to shape then hardened with epoxy resin.
I used goats leather to cover the scabbards wooden slats and joined them by cross stitching them together, finished off with a brass spike (chape) at the very end to complete the look. The final test involved slicing a few bottles of water to show how effective the kukri can be!
Hope you enjoyed the video,
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