What a fascinating knife. I have been looking at allot of Tibetan pattern welding, but I have never seen a kukri with hairpin folding before. There are a couple of unusual things that the smith did to adapt a technique for long straight blades to this knife. Either the hairpin rods were placed backwards pointing away from the tip, or it is a rare double-ended pattern. To me it looks it bit more like the former. At the tip it looks like the rods thin out and come together without really joining. It would take a very close look at the tip to know for sure. Then around the hairpin rods is the typical frame of high carbon steel. What I see at the base of the blade is the last rod of darker iron extending down into the base of the blade and probably forming the tang. This would give the tang good shock absorbing properties. Then the high carbon frame that extends around the entire blade also surrounds the darker rod that extends to the handle. To add thickness to the blade at the base, the bright steel frame partially covers the central darker portion.
You did a great job with a very quick etch, but the color looks a bit unusual. Is it really as green/yellow as it appears in the photo? Would nitric acid make a more traditional dark and light pattern? It is not an area I am experienced in.
Josh
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