Bear with me for what will be a long, and might be a rambling post. I promise there will be a point at the end. (If I don't forget it along the way
)
My father is a talented artist. His childhood dream was to be an animator for Disney, or to illustrate comics. He never persued these dreams. He did collect reprints of his favorite old comics in book form, and books about illustration, animation and other visual art. I grew up reading reprints of comics from the '30s and '40s. These included "Krazy Kat", "Little Orphan Annie", "Popeye" and the beautifully drawn adventure strips such as "Tarzan", "Flash Gordon" and
"Prince Valiant". Prince Valiant was my favorite. It sparked my interest in the Arthurian legends and other medieval things in general. I loved anything to do with "knights in armor". Both my parents encouraged reading by their children, and the moment one of us expressed any interest in anything, it was certain that a book on the subject would soon appear. My father bought the formidable tome-
A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor by
Stone. Heavy reading for a ten-year-old, but there were plenty of pictures.
It was in this book that I first saw images of Khukris, and read about the Ghurkas who wielded them. I was impressed. I eventually wore out the binding of that book. On a birthday in my early teens, my parents gave me my first fixed blade knife- a khukri. Although it was of questionable origin and quality, I loved it and used it as often as I could find a reason. I finally destroyed it doing trail maintenance on my high school's cross-country course. I spent many fruitless years searching for a replacement before I found Ghurka House and HI on this forum. I now own several high quality Khuks, a couple of "show pieces" and a couple of solid "users".
All of that just say this: Our tastes and preferences are usually not determined by exhaustive research, polling data and celebrity testimonials. My devotion to Khuks is as much sentimental as practical. Many others out there may have similar stories of how an axe or hatchet sparked their interest in choppers. An axe may be as good as a khukri, which may be as good as a machete, which may be as good as a big bowie, which may be as good as an axe. The thing is, we don't leave what we know and love for something that is "as good as", it has to better, much better, to make us change our tastes and habits.
Its OK to not get the "Khukri thing". It never hurts to try something new, and if you don't find it significantly better than what you've already got, there's no need to change.*
*For some reason, this philosophy is considered void among the "Glockblock", who consider loyalty to, or tolerance of, any other firearm to be an act of ultimate sacriledge.
