50" janawar katne style khukuri pics

Josh Muller

Josh Muller

Joined
Jun 22, 2003
Messages
3,049
got this one on ebay about 2 weeks ago for EXTREMELY cheap if the heat treat is okay. good stuff... weighs in at 13lbs with all the gear attached, so i assume that its closer to 9-10lbs for the blade only.

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left to right - 44" gelbu special style khukuri, 30" sirupati, 30" ang khola, 26" chiruwa ang khola, 18" ang khola, 44" gelbu special style khukuri's karda, busse straight handled badger attck, my mrostov style chakma

its funny, when i first got the 30" siru i thought "this is way to akward to use for anything. theres no way i could use this without having it go all over the place, its to heavy to control the direction"... but now that ive used the 50", the 30 siru seems light in the hand. i suppose that part of this is do to the weight difference, but i also think that holding something so much heavier and bigge forced me to use the basic ax edicate when weilding it, and once i applied to the to siru, it made a huge difference.

this is a really awesome blade, in every respect. the fit and infish isnt quite up to HI standards in the blade department - the but cap isnt level at all

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the (ferrule?) has a large area that should have been filled with epoxy or laha or whatever is used on this specific khukuri. i'll be filling it in weith a large quantity of superglue if i cant find a suitable clear epoxy...

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there are clearly iether powertool grinder marks, or some very very even hand finshing marks that normally arent found on polished HI products. the chakma that came with it is a rough satin finish, as well as the main grind of the karda

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the karda that came with it is very very nice. basically the same size as the SHBA, just longer in blade and handle. its fully convex ground

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its about 1/4" with a slight taper
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somethign that i didnt expect - the entirety of the blade is hollow forged, with a convex curve to the main edge. the edge itself is more evenly finished then most HI products, but its not forged as thin at the edge. my 26.5" ak and 30" ak are EXTREMELY sharp as far as the main geometry is concerned. even if they had a flat edge, literally squared, it would still make a great splitter/chopper because of how thin they are forged. i assume that the edge finishing is partially do to power tools on this one though.

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another funny part about this blade, while the knives arent up to HI quality, the sheath is awesome!. its made of the same leather, but it just seems like iether a better conditioner was used in the tanning/dying process, or its silicon that makes it so smooth. the sheath is higher quality then HI in general. though id prefer a superfrog like on HI's :rolleyes: :)

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an example of the little things the sheath has that make it high quality - the tip brass plate is really well done, with an almost seamless apearence. the tip is rounded to a tip much better then HI's, wich is more of a rolded role then a point (not that i woul want a point there, but still)

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in hand - the size and general shape of the blade make you want to choke way up on the handle to get a better control of it.

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yep, its huge :D

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More proof that there is never a good bear thread around when you really need it. :D

Good review, nice pics. let's see how many captions we can come up with for this picture.

n2s
 
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n2s
 
Thanks for the pics. That is a true, true monster. One question for you. Where do you go from there? :D
 
to be honest, i would place a 3/4" thick 20" ang khola in the same size catagory as the 50" janawar katne style khukuri. its just ludicrously big in a different fashion. *or ganga ram :eek: *

i'll also be getting a decorated scabbard katana from HI hopefully in a few weeks :)

i did notice that the pics have a tendancy to not show first run, it can take a few "show picture"s before they come up, but they do normally load given enough time. im using verizon as my picture storage place.

even though its really big, because of the larger handle, and the general elongated oval shape, its not as unweildable as it looks. you just have to handle it like a extra large double bit ax, aim very carefully, keep your arc straight, use your body correctly, and it'll go where you want it to go :)
 
Helluva rig! The buffalo would probably take it away and use it on me as I doubt I would be able to handle it.:eek: :rolleyes: ;)

The karda is a rig by itself it appears. Gotta love that full convex grind!:D
 
pics work for me!

full convex = :cool:


The janawar has definitely been worked on with a grinder. You can remove the marks if you like - just used the sandpaper-over-a-padded-block method. Start at 120 (or whatever it takes to remove the scratches) and go up from there. That's exactly what I do to remove the grinding marks on the khukuris I've worked on. Scotchbrite pad after you reached 400 grit makes for a very nice satin finish.
 
Well, here's four:
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4. Gerald hadn't really thought about it at the time of its purchase, but once he put the 50 incher in the last sword stand the shop owner had, it did look a bit menacing out there on the back porch...

3. "Hey, buddy, I asked fer NO salt on those fries."

2. "I'm just here to guard this tent."

1. "Hey, this is just the karda fer the 13 footer!"

Great pictoral review, Seth, and good sport! That is the biggest Gelbu Special on the planet. Thanx fer sharin!
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Keith
 
im afraid that the majority of the cost would be in hassle :(

shipping would be outrages, and im not sure if uncle or the shop would be willing to make it/ship it, but ya never know.

OH MAN.... a guts style khukuri :D:D (guts is a comic, same style sword as zanza "fighter for hire" *later changed name back to sanuskae (sp?)*- its about 10ft long and about 12" thick, crushes apoinents rather then cuts them).

i just realized that it is of the gelbu special style blade geometry :D i'll have to start refering to it as such from now on...

there arent to many pictures around of the HI janawar, so i dont recall what the geometry is like...
 
I like the picture with you resting it on your shoulder, holding it with one hand.
:D :D :D
 
Seth, by any chance have you ran a file along the sweet spot to test the hardness on your giant killer? How about the beautiful karda? And the chakmak of course?
I'm very interested in knowing whether such a khukuri and its tool's has a similar hardness as its smaller brothers.:)
 
the sharpening system i use is the edge pro apex model, and its dificult to use with larger knives.

and ive always been weary of sharpening knives this large/heavy :eek:
a little over 1/2 thick at the spine, im prety sure it dips down to 3/8" thick at the center of the hollows... but i cant be sure with my measuring tape...

weird. and kind of stupid, i just measured it, and the knife is 44" total, not 50, the blade is 31 not 36 like it said in the auction... on well....

well, just ran it through the apex at 100 grit... very hard to do i might add, i had to have the bulk of the blade in the crook of my arm to keep it straight :rolleyes: it does appear to be harder near the sweet spot then it is in the curve (i cant tell for the tip, because i cant control the sharpening process with 10lbs sitting off the sharpening table 40" to the right), but the thing is that it seems like its more through hardned then HI products, but not as hard at the sweet spot. the curve doesnt just drag in the curve like ive found with hi's, but i am able to get a quick and easy edge on the sweet spot... but that could just be because i was putting an initial edge to what was basically a forged edge. overall, im going to say that it is differentially zone hardened, but not as contrastically as HI products. the curve edge is a little harder, but the sweet spot is a little softer.

same goes with the karda, it takes an easy edge, but its not soft like yo usee on parts of HI's. there were a few tiems with... i think it was my 20" siru, it just would not let me finish up the edge. i was grinding on it for a good 20 minutes with a 100-120 grit stone and it just wouldnt let go of that final forged edge for anything. so, all in all, this seems like these would be weasy to feild sharpen, but sharp enough to perform without going to crap immediately.

im not to sure about the chakma, but now that i have the mrostov style chakma, im not to worried about it :)
 
Seth,
Looks cool. I guess my origianl question is answered, it's not HI. I am glad it went to someone on the forum with picture posting ability! ;) I 'll also bet NO one tries to steal the tent know! :cool: From the pictues it was a steal. The side knives alone look to be useful in their own right.
 
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