Brigade Quartermaster's kukri vs. Cold Steel:

Crayola

Crayola

Joined
Sep 23, 1999
Messages
3,831
So there you are, wanting a kukri. You have narrowed it down to the Brigade QM kukri and the Cold Steel Ghurka kukri. Which do you get? WHY?
 
Cold Steel makes very fine products no doubt, but for everyday use I like to keep my cutlery disposable
as long as they work well. The Ontriao made Brigade QM kukri is a GENUINE bargain! I own one
and use it for lots of outside work. I 'm not afraid to beat the He** out of it because I know it'll take it.
If I just happen to total it hitting a rock ,fench post ,etc. I just order a new one and keep on truckin'.
The Brigade QM get my vote......and my money. Good stuff here . Tactical Kives wrote about it QM
awhile back and they liked it also. Try one just to find out if you'll like a this type of knife. Enjoy.....
 
Even though I'm not a Kukri fan, the Brigade Kukri is an excellent piece and gets my vote.

Jeff
 
Ontario Knives is another Kukri that you might want to take a look at, as they are pretty good hackers for the price.
 
Get a 20" Ang Khola kukri from Himalayan Imports. That way, you wouldn't have to worry about hitting rocks, becasue it would probably chop the damn things in half. You could also go to your neighbor's house, the one with the 4 junk cars littering the neighborhood, and chop those up as well.
 
The Brigade Quartermasters kukri is the one made by Ontario... they are one and the same. For the money it is a great knife but not quite on the level of the CS.

Cam
 
For reasons that remain a bit of a mystery to me, I bought one of the Indian made khukuris sold by Atlanta Cutlery. I got the wood handled one with the full tang. It is buried somewhere in my closet, am ashamed to say. Other than the handle being a bit small, and the sheath not being very impressive, I believe the khukuri would function very well. I'd need to sharpen mine a bit, but it is one stout hunk of steel. I believe it cost $22 plus shipping.

Also, don't forget the E-Neps that Santi will get for you in Thailand. I got one. The quality of manufacture is quite a bit above the AC khukuri. Much longer handle to hang onto also. However, decided I didn't want a lathi scabbard, so have none. Santi is great to work with!
 
I've been thinking of getting the BQ Kukri as well. I've always wondered why this knife doesn't get as much interest, given that it has Jeff Randall's approval and the price is a steal. I already have a HI WWII kukri which is an absolutelty awesome chopper and combat tool (well, good at hacking carboard boxes anyway!)- while I don't expect the BQ Kukri to chop as well, I know that it will be a better cutter since the edge is thinner. I'm still waiting on my RTAK from Newt Livesay - so hopefully I can do a curved vs straight knife comparison too.

The price is right, the steel is good, and the handles are ok - I'm thinking that if I don't like the handle, I'm going to get a custom micarta one done.

I feel the CS one is a little bit overpriced (but knowing me, will probably get one in the future!).
 
The Ontario/Brigade Quartermaster kukri is on the heavy side. My example is a sold slab of flat 3/16" steel all the way down to about 3/4" behind the edge. The Cold Steel LTC is a much more pratical design but it goes for two or three times the price.
 
Not2Sharp: the BQ kukri is fully flat ground now. Apparently they found that an extremely shallow ground 3/16" kukri is heavy and crappy as a working blade! The fully flat ground one seems to work better.
 
I only own the Cold Steel Guhkra Kukri. It is amazing. Whenever I'm doing yard work it's strapped to my side. I can chop it with all day long in my yard, and when I take it that evenign, can still cleanly cut a piece of printer paper. Amazing.

It has no problem chopping through a branch 3/4" thick in one swing.

There are ONLY two downsides I can find. One, if your using it alot, you gotta wear a glove or else your hand will not be kind to you.

Two, it's made out of their Carbon V steel. This is great stuff, however it will rust if not taken care of. but that really isn't a problem if you keep it oiled and stuff.

However cuase it's being used outdoors for chopping down green lumber and stuff it get's very dirty. and in order to keep the blade clean, you'll lose your orringal finish.
 
Crayola,

I am glad to hear they fixed it. I ordered my example about a month before it was released, so it was definitely part of the first run.

Ontario knives is suppose to be working on another kukri, which will also be sold through Brigade Quartermasters. They had some prototypes at Blade, and were expecting to release the new model around September. Has anyone heard anything more on this?

N2S
 
The only thing that I don't like about the CS models is the flair at the base of the grip. It feels great in the knife shop, it feels good during martial arts movements, but after 30 min. in the field the kraton dimples start to grind the skin off the base of your palm. The dimples in the middle of the grip don't bother me much, just that damn flair. However, I don't have the heart to grind it off so I just wear gloves as suggested above.
 
Another vote for the Cold Steel kukri! I have cut up a 12-14" tree with one and many branches. I just let it`s own weight fall forward and it cut`s great. If I swung hard It would bite in to deep and took some leverage to get out. You can take an arm off with one swing. Holds it edge good to(in wood). :)
 
Have the Ontario model. Mine is flat ground but rather thick. Still searching for a really thin one. BTW the Cold Steel kukris have, for me, a really small grip.
 
Himalayan Imports is the first and last name in khukuris. There are many sizes and models to choose from. The prices are reasonable, you are getting a handmade one of a kind knife from a master with many years of experience (what would that cost you anywhere else). The service and quality is THE BEST ANYWHERE! YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED! Pop over to the HI forums and check it out.
 
Daniel :

I've been thinking of getting the BQ Kukri as well. I've always wondered why this knife doesn't get as much interest
Click to expand...

Because of Himalayan Imports. They dominate the market with a high quality product both in terms of base performance as well as on a per dollar basis. The normal costs are quite low, and the reduction seen on "blems" is near insane given that they make no functional difference. The knife also comes with a full warrenty, so they can be used with confidence and there is no concern about having to buy a replacement. There is also the benefit of having a huge user base to draw knowledge from regarding technique, maintenance etc. .


-Cliff
 
I have also started a bent versus straight thread. Here's what I've been thinking lately:

What is a great bush blade? Well, RTAKs, Battle Mistresses and the like come to mind. I suspect a BM chops bettert in part because it is "bent" at the handle! Plus a nice flat ground blade is good for cutting sandwiches and doing all of those slicing chores you want.

I suspect kukris are chopping kings, but notas good as something liek an RTAK at slicing. So then the Brigade QM kukri and the CS one come to mind. There you have a flat ground blade that will slice no problem, and it is very bent, so you should get better chopping than a similar sized straight bladed blade, no?

I realize the HI stuff is tops. GH stuff is probably great too. I'd love to have a WWII model and one of the more martial blades. The only kukri I had was a CS LTC, and I traded that. (yeah, I know the kamis don't think of it a s a kukri).

So anyways, I'm looking for a slicing blade that can chop well. Is the BQ and CS type kukris what would fit my criteria, or a straight (BM/RTAK type) or a REAL kukri?

Notice that I'm not buying right now. THis is just something I've been thinking about.
 
Crayola :

I suspect kukris are chopping kings, but notas good as something liek an RTAK at slicing. So then the Brigade QM kukri and the CS one come to mind. There you have a flat ground blade that will slice no problem, and it is very bent, so you should get better chopping than a similar sized straight bladed blade, no?
Click to expand...

The larger chopping khukuris like the Ang Kholas have the geometry they do to prevent binding on various types of wood. If they were flat ground they could lodge so tight that they could not be removed (hollow would be a problem as well). A thin flat ground khukuri is a mix of two designs that have strong points that are contradictory. Cold Steel also used a steel that was optomized for a different class of use as well.

Note, HI does offer many slender khukuris with very light bodies and high performance cutting geometry for light vegetation. I would assume they would also perform well on a lot of misc. cutting tasks. They have even offered 1/4" thick blades in the past on some of the smaller models. And they have longer ones which are not much thicker. However they all have convex profiles to reduce binding in deep cuts.


-Cliff
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top