Bought this at a flee market yesterday...

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Gerry.GEG

Joined
Feb 18, 2008
Messages
88
...and after taking the rust off the blade was wondering if anyone can tell me about the marks on the blade? The stag handle has a nice patina on it but the blade was mostly rusty and I wanted to see what marks were on it.
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That looks like the most uncomfortable handle ever. It looks way too oversized for the blade...or even a human hand. Maybe it's just the pictures. Cool blade, though.
 
Actually, the handle is curved so it fits in the right hand like a glove. I was very surprised. Whoever did it, did a fine job of picking an antler and shaping it to his hand. It's a bit hard to show but, here's a couple that show how it is curved into your hand. It feels incredibly natural.
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Looks to me like someone ground the blade down quite a bit possibly to remove rust. The markings look simmilar to a kukri i bought a few years ago in the way they were done. Mine has patterns all over the blade that look tapped in with a hammer and tiny chisle or pick. If you were to grind the heck out of mine i imagine what would be left would look just like that.
 
I used a wirewheel on it to remove all the rust. I looks worse for these indoor pics. wouldn't have touched the blade (patina) if it was natural aging or nice patina. It just looked like shit when I got it. $8 and I figured I'll keep it anyway. My son already wants it :) You're right, it does look like a small punch was used to mark the blade.
 
By the decoration and handle, it looks to be a low end tourist item.

Looks to me like someone ground the blade down quite a bit possibly to remove rust
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It does look like someone scrubbed the heck out of it with coarse sandpaper, grinder, or wire brush. Good thing it was not an important piece of history or valuable collectible.
 
That looks like an Indian tourist khukuri as opposed to a properly forged, heat-treated true khukuri made by a "kami" or blacksmith. But for $8 you didn't get ripped off or anything -- unfortunately you didn't happen to find a masterpiece at a yard sale, either. Cheers!
 
Yeah, didn't figure it was a find even when I was looking at it. Seemed like a small blade for a Gurkha and the handle certainly wasn't original, lol. But, the guy wanted $10, I said $7 and we settled on $8. Hell, I'll use it for cutting weeds for that price.
 
Gerry.GEG said:
I used a wirewheel on it to remove all the rust...
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That explains it. Next time you should ask about an unfamiliar item before you 'clean' it. Just to be on the safe side. ;)
For $8, it's still an interesting foreign souvenir piece, that is if you can polish out the wire brush marks. :D
 
If it had a genuine or other type of handle, I would never have touched the blade. I knew it wasn't a treasure. :)
 
Tourist khuk from India. That type of artwork is not indicative of a high-end khukri. From the size of the horn grip, it looks like the blade was made to fit the horn, not the other way around. Even someone with large hands wouldn't be able to control that knife to perform the wrist snap associated properly using a khuk for chopping. The exposed pin on the left side would rip-up your hands if you were a lefty.

Is the blade uniformly thick like it was directly ground from a car spring, or does it look forged to taper from a thick spine down to a thinner edge?

If you give it to your son, you better be careful that he doesn't lose control of it when chopping.
 
Gerry.GEG said:
If it had a genuine or other type of handle, I would never have touched the blade. I knew it wasn't a treasure. :)
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CWL said:
Tourist khuk from India. That type of artwork is not indicative of a high-end khukri. From the size of the horn grip, it looks like the blade was made to fit the horn, not the other way around. Even someone with large hands wouldn't be able to control that knife to perform the wrist snap associated properly using a khuk for chopping. The exposed pin on the left side would rip-up your hands if you were a lefty.

Is the blade uniformly thick like it was directly ground from a car spring, or does it look forged to taper from a thick spine down to a thinner edge?

I think it is uniform. Could definitely be from a spring.

If you give it to your son, you better be careful that he doesn't lose control of it when chopping.
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He mostly wants it for the looks. Thanks for the advice though, appreciate it.
 
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