GTK 128-22 and 128-12 pre polish:
Month: May 2015
My first GTK 128-22 with hamon
It ended up being a flip flop hamon or temper line because I discovered after several attempts that in order to harden these thin blades in a Japanese style you had to harden the spine also. Cupping and warping was a problem at first:
Photos of Workbench 128 drop belly blade and a John EK
Photo showing my workbench assembly area with the cranked handle, drop belly 128 Hint,.. my scales are bolted on and removable: Photo showing a John EK that my brother carried in the first gulf war. It’s the JuJu of the knife on that one. John EK knives were legendary. Usually if you had one […]
Photo of Collins 128 and 2 Dha’s
Photo of the previous traced patterns:
Photos showing Static Axis of Rotation SAR
This photo shows how the grip angle compared to the blade either sweeps back or sweeps forward. What I call S.A.R. The more forward the sweep the faster the acceleration in the machete swing i.e., the quicker you can get the thing moving. With a wrist flick. These blades all vary between 375 and 750 grams […]
Various Collins Machetes
See attached In order from bottom to top are: Collins 128 Guatemala Collins 128 USA circa 1940’s Collins 128 with concealed tang circa 1920-1930 Collins MKII lightweight guatemala circa 1965 one of the last originals Collins USN MKII 1945 stamp Collins MKII could be WWII but it is a Colombian blade, has period sheath. GTK […]
Collins 128 Guatemala compared to a similar sized Dha
The attached drawing shows a large Dha compared to a reshaped Collins 128 Guatemala circa 1960-1965. I decided to recut the collins spine and angle the blade into a more forward sweep. The machete is designed to cut and slice brush and saplings not as a weapon and is used mainly as an agricultural implement although […]
Tracing of a 20″ Dha
The attached photos and drawing is a tracing of a 20″ (19.75 actual) burmese dha. These are a similar type of general purpose implements to machetes but are usually much lighter in weight. I could go on at length about this subject because I was trying to figure out how to get the maximum rotational speed in […]