Believe it or not, I found the pix. Ray and Uncle Bill at SOF convention.

Bill Martino

Bill Martino

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Mar 5, 1999
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These pix were taken at the Soldier of Fortune convention in Orlando, FL early 1992 (I think!). Ray, a Florida resident, was able to drive up in a half day or so, and made the Himalayan Imports booth you see. I had to fly in from San Diego and couldn't carry a booth in the plane. Ray did a great job, as usual.


top -- Ray manning the booth with a khukuri at the ready.

center -- Uncle Bill, gray but not as gray as today. A visitor wants to get into the pix. Bet he never thought he would end up on the net!

bottom -- these khukuris are all part of Ray's collection. They came from various villages all over Nepal in late 80's. Several of the old kamis who made these knives are no longer with us, including old Kancha Kami, maker of the KK special.

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Blessings from the computer shack in Reno.

Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
Khukuri FAQ
 
Bill,
The pictures are fantastic. I remember Ray's massive collection of Khukuris being cited in your early brochures. He must have a warehouse full by now. Being the pack-rat I am, I am sure to still have the brochure photos (you described knives on the backs of photos then) that are displayed in the lower corners of the table. The engraving style featured on the three khukuris to the left also seemed more prominent then than now, also the sheath decorations. Do you have plans to bring back some of this ornateness? The snow leopard, dragon and white sheath models are grand efforts with a good response. And of course, You know that I just hound you when I travel a tangent. Will the fabulous white sheath model make a re-appearance? And of old kamis, did you ever find out about Nara? My questions will really flow when you figure out how to set up a webcam in Birghorka.
Best,
Leo


[This message has been edited by leo2 (edited 05-21-2000).]
 
We used to get some of the engraved blade Newari style khukuris from an old Newari man, 84 years old we were told, who would come in from the village to do puja at Swayambunath. He would bring a few khukuris he'd made and sell them to a dealer up at Swayambu to pay his travel expenses.

We bought these khukuris from the dealer who would never reveal his source. We were never able to discover the name of the old Newari kami or what village he came from. I think Ray may have one or two of these. He also has one of the last khukuris made by Kancha Kami and a tough khukuri it is.

At the time Ray was building his collection the entire family, Pala, Jeevan, Sanu, Nabin, Gelbu and friends were scouting the villages of Nepal looking for the best khukuris they could find. It was tough going in those days with no real product line and problems like great khukuris and lousy scabbards (village kamis make their own scabbards and this is a job for sarkis, not kamis).

We may do a few of the white scabbards if there is any interest in them. Personally, I don't like them -- get very dirty very fast and are hard to clean and maintain.

We have not heard from Nara for some time. Nobody has gone up to his village to see him recently and he does not know where BirGorkha is located now. We have had several people ask for a khukuri made by him and we do need to make contact. Maybe if I get over at the end of the year I'll try to get up there but will probably have to hire a horse to do the walking for me.

[This message has been edited by Bill Martino (edited 05-21-2000).]
 
Bill
Look at that you found them.The 6.6lb K is dead center and look at the butt cap on the K I am holding it is large and round,that is Kancha Kami's knife.
Last night I dug up a few of my own they are shots of the full table in sections(left,right,center).If I sent them to you could you post them in Khukuri Inventory thread.My Ks realy have no names you only had five catagories(the small pic to left of 24" K),so I would have to list my collection by blade style and dementions.Let me know.


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Ray
 
Ray,
I hope you'll send as many pics as you can find to Uncle Bill for posting. I'm sure that there are lots of us who'd love to see some of the earlier HI offerings we've only heard about till now.
Berk
 
Uncle Bill, I notice that none of the sheaths pictured have brass tips. Is that because the tips came off or is it because that brass tips weren't commonly used back then?
 
Steve
Brass tips did not come on all scabbards and most of the handles are 4",4.5",on blades up to 20";5",on blades up to 25" and 6" to 7" on blade out to 30".

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Ray
 
Those early village models were made for Nepalis who have small hands and that was a problem for us. Because the kamis were trying to make the scabbards, too, we got a real hodgepodge of scabbards. Some looked like the rats had been chewing on them. Often, karda and chakma were nothing but a small piece of unhardened steel maybe an inch long. It was really not easy in those early years!!!!!

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Blessings from the computer shack in Reno.

Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
Khukuri FAQ
 
Right.Looking at it as customer,you had to do a lot of wiating.Now you can ask for a the Khukuri you want and can even choose the Kami you want to make it for you.Then we would call Bill tell him what we want,then at some time,he would give you a call a tell you what he had,you could take one or wait an other month or two for something else.
I was really impressed when I first looked at the HI website and saw so many choices.
Looking at it from the sales end Bill had to spend a lot of money trying to sell knives he didnot even have yet or know for sure when he would have them.That is why I used my collection for the shows I had more Ks than Bill could find in one places.Then he would have to deal with the no it all competition that called Khukuris,kukris and wrote article after article about how much they knew about the knife and how to use it,yada,yada,yada so on so forth and of course some,someone would have somthing to say about the new guy selling Khukuris and that he can't even spell it right.
BAM!BIF,BOOOM.I have copies of letters your Uncle Bill wrote;to set them all streight on who knew what.Apologies came in and you don't here that stuff any more.

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Ray
 
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