1st Impressions of my Gelbu Special

Jaeger

Jaeger

Joined
Feb 27, 1999
Messages
543

It arrived yesterday. I returned home to find the postman's slip in my mailbox. I nearly drove through the front door of the post office in my rush to get there.
My anticipation was well founded! Upon removing the blade from the box my first thought was "wicked!". This blade appears to have been grown somewhere, not forged. It looks "organic". It reminds me of something you'd find in some artwork from Ron(?) Geiger. (the guy who did the art and design for the "Alien" series.) This blade may work extremely well for utility work but it is a fighter! At least that's how it feels to me.

It is a full 20" from tip to tip. The handle is 6" from the top of the bolster to the tip of the buttcap. The blade is (obviously) 14". It has the eye of the dove cho. At it's widest point the spine is 9/16". I averages closer to 1/2" throuhgout the length. It only feels slightly heavier that my 15"AK. It sings when I run the karda over it. I've never had a blade do that before.

The chakma is a full 6 1/2" long, with the fullered blade coming just short of 4".The karda is 6" long with 3 1/2" of it being blade. Both are well finished.

The scabbard is nicely finished but is very loose. I will have to try to tighten it up.

This blade is entrancing. I cannot keep from handling it or looking at it. I can feel that it has much to teach me. I just hope that I don't chop off anything
important while I'm learning.

I will start field testing it the day after tomarrow.

I am reminded of Rusty's comment that Sun, Moon and Stars needed a hero to weild it. This knive leaves that impression with me. It should be slaying dragons and rescuing damsels. It is the most fearsome blade I have ever seen!

Mike
 
:
Nice ain't it Mike?
smile.gif

These are really nice and I have to agree that it culd have been imagined by some write.When you said that Ray Bradbury came to mind immediately.

I have found the best way to tighten a loose scabbard is to drop a thin piece of leather about 3/4" square down it.Sometimes it will take as many as 3 of them.It just tightens the tip and still makes it loose enough to draw quickly while passing the "jump test."

I think you may be as I was when I first started here and I think it was when I got my 18" AK.
I kept getting the karda and chakma mixed up.I finally remembered the karda was the little knife by associateing the k-arda with the k-nife since they both start with "k".
smile.gif


I still know nothing although it has been mentioned that I _may_ know something about cornbread. hehehehe.

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>>>>---¥vsa---->®
Cornbread ain't s'possed ta be sweet!....Dagnabit gurl,whut did they teach you way up north in ....;) hehehe.


 
Yvsa - for me Robert Heinlein's "The Glory Road" comes to mind as the subconscious reason why I made the hero/sun,moon,stars comment.

Here I've been sitting crying into my beer:
that I don't have a Ganga Ram magic khukuri,
that I don't have a Royal Kami banspati,
that I don't have a Gelbu special, etc.

I've got sun,moon,stars.
I've got the Hanuman/WWII.
I've got the Sumo Salyan.
I've got the 20" HI Chainpuri.
I've got the 18th Century and much more.

I need an attitude adjustment.
Or maybe a quest. hehehehehe

I'd go resharpen my Marto Don Quixote sword-
rapier, but that'll have to wait til my wife
is out of the house taking her walk, her
being retired now.


[This message has been edited by Rusty (edited 29 September 1999).]
 
:
But Rusty,didn't Robert Heinlein also say in "Time Enough For Love"
( I think it was ) "That little girls,like butterflies,need no excuse." ?
And also "That when society starts issueing identification cards it is time to move on."

I am sure glad that books are in a form that permits them to be read over and over again and again.Mine are like old friends and I need to take some time from the forums and get reaquantied with some and make some new friends with others.For the first time in my life I have new books that haven't been read at least once.

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>>>>---¥vsa---->®
Cornbread ain't s'possed ta be sweet!....Dagnabit gurl,whut did they teach you way up north in ....;) hehehe.


 
Thanks for report, Mike. Very nicely done!

There was one Gelbu Special that was a little larger than the others. I think the kamis do this purposely thinking that some might like a little larger or smaller version as some came in at about 17.5 inches. This is not exactly what I want but I can see they are trying to please so can't bust them too badly about this.

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Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
http://members.aol.com/himimp/index.html
 
This one is a bit larger than my 17 1/2 incher. Even though my smaller one is a good chopper, it would most assuredly be an exceptional fighter! I actually would prefer a shorter one as a fighter, so I am very happy with my "little" Gelbu Special.

Enjoy Mike, aren't they great!
 
Yvsa I will never again be confused about which is the karda and which is the chakma. This belongs in the FAQ, too. Along with the One True Cornbread recipe
wink.gif


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Namaste,
Jeff Paulsen

"Oh, a magic khukuri. Why didn't you say so?"
 
Thanks for the correction Yvsa. You know, I've been hanging around here since last February. You'd thik I would have gotten that simple bit of info down by now. Well, I shouldn't forget now!

The only cornbread I've ever had was sweet. If you hqve an authentic alternative I'd appreciate an email.

Mike
 
:
Okay guys.I will ask my wife to let me copy her cornbread recipe.
I sure know what it is like to not have good cornbread.

Barb has taken to using a mix made byShawnee Mills ®.I just looked and it does have some corn sugar in it,it is way down the list.I can assure y'all it ain't like the Jiffy ® cornbread mix where you can taste the sweetness.

I have to give my bride all the credit.She still works in a damn sweatshop,we worked there together and that's where we met.Barb's a dayum-ed good machine operator too.
Barb puts in from 8 to 10 hours a day and some 4 to 5 hour Saturdays.
She and my g'daughter are in the process of hauling in about 3 ricks of wood for our Sweatlodge.
She mows the lawn,tends the flowers and most of all feeds me well and puts up with me,especially when I get the HIKV -vbeseg- and she says "Go ahead and get the new Khukuri."

I sure ain't gonna complain about good mix cornbread and bisquick biscuits.
smile.gif

And Uncle Bill the next time I send a package your way I will include some packets of this mix and you can join me in telling everyone how good it is.hehehe.


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>>>>---¥vsa---->®
Cornbread ain't s'possed ta be sweet!....Dagnabit gurl,whut did they teach you way up north in ....;) hehehe.


 
I gave it it's first workout today. A little bit of chopping and a lot of wood splitting. It is better at both chores than my 15" AK. Especially wood splitting. I am just guessing here but I believe the extra length combined with a little bit of extra heft accounts for it's better performance. The fuller seems to allow it to penetrate better and maintain a higher speed during this penetration. When the steel flairs back out at the spine I think it acts like a wedge giving the wood that extra push to make the halves fly apart. Whether that is right or not I don't know but I was splitting logs in one swing up to about 7" in diameter with pretty good consistency. I did about 15-20 logs like this and there was no noticable degredation of the edge! (I had also cleared some brush and done some light chopping earlier in the day. This thing really makes the chips fly!!)

I did have one minor problem. At the base of the horn handle where it flairs out and comes to a point right underneath the buttcap a 1/4" chunk of horn broke off. (on the spine side) This should be an easy fix with some epoxy. I'll see if I can find the piece of horn to grind up and add to the epoxy for color.

So far I am highly impressed.

Mike
 
Since both Jaeger and Bob Irons were kind enough to post dimensions, I figured I ought to give the low down on the mainstream 18" Gelbu Special models. Mine is 18" from tip to tip with the handle measuring 5 3/8" from the top of the bolster to buttcap tip and 7/16" on the widest portion of the spline. Not sure of the weight but I suspect it may be an ounce or two more than my 15" AK.

I intimated on Bob's thread about his impressions that this was quickly suplanting my AK as my favorite. It has
smile.gif
!

------------------
-=[Bob Allman]=-

I did NOT escape from the institution! They gave me a day pass!

BFC member since day one
AKTI membership pending
VHA and NRA member


 
Thanks, Bob. Actually, the kamis are trying a bit too hard to please. They purposely made a few "over and under" size, thinking that some might like this variation. Another reason hard specs give me the willies.

------------------
Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
http://members.aol.com/himimp/index.html
 
I took it hunting with me yesterday. I didn't get to use it except to frighten off some mountain bikers. Unfortunately the brass endcap for the sheith fell off somewhere and is now MIA.

The blade carries pretty well on the belt but it's size makes it a bit cumbersome. The weight isn't bad (of course I'm used to carrying around a lot more on my belt!) it's just long. I will have to play around with some other carry options and see about having a more "western" sheith made for it.
 
I'm gonna play Cliff's little brother and make a suggestion. If you want it to ride higher, take off the frog, turn it upside down, so loop is on bottom and turn loop around so beltloop is on outside of scabbard.
You now have a high rise belt rig halfway between shoulder holster and normal belt carry, with the scabbard between the belt and your pants. Hey, it could work, couldn't it? For that matter, they carried them in sashes in Nepal for a long time, and there had to be a reason for that.
 
Well.Rusty,I just happen to have a sword sash.A pretty expensive gold staff and General officer`s one,at that.It is a strictly non active way to pack a khukukri.
 
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