Cho-less Gelbu Special featuring Pala's magic touch.(Warning: 54k unfriendly)

[JayGoliath]

Sequel to Mr Singh's (ASTK) victory over the tree log, Mr Gelbu went back a week later for a show-down.

Standing at 18" OAL, weighing at about 30 Oz (clad in Walnut wood finishing from Pala), it's going for a 1.5 inch diameter rubber tree branch, Hevea brasiliensis (Comparing that to Cold Steel Sjambok i acquired from Cotherion less than an hour then)

Without flash

With flash (Notice the fresh rubber milk on the belly)

The branch was cut into 3 segments and whilst halving one of them, Gelbu was battened, showing no sign of weak point.

Fantastic fuller.

Overall, the feel is very lively and like an extension of arms.

The Pala handle is made so ergonomically that you can hold it by :

The most secure grip.

Notice the pinky finger is now below the pommel hook.

With reinforced rivets, ,cho-less (covered by Walnut ergo handle) and spine thickness of 0.9mm, the balance point & point of strike of this Dil-made blade
are very much different from a normal Gelbu. Because of that, i would like to try light chopping in the future.

 

[GregS]

I enjoy my Gelbu Special.

Thanks for sharing!:thumbup:

 

[mohd]

With reinforced rivets, ,cho-less (covered by Walnut ergo handle) and spine thickness of 0.9mm, the balance point & point of strike of this Dil-made blade are very much different from a normal Gelbu. Because of that, i would like to try light chopping in the future.

Hi Jay! It's a cho-less Gelbu Special Mine has a pariwa ki aka cho :thumbup: I think the ricasso part of the Khuk is not there, though! IMVHO Pala did a magic in rehandling the Khuk by making use of the pariwa ki aka cho as the hole to fix the first rivet :thumbup:

I bought two Gelbu Specials back during the first few runs of it. The first one is mine while the second one is for my office colleague. It's a great Khuk!

And thanks for sharing the experience

mohd

 

[JayGoliath]

Hi Pak,

IMVHO Pala did a magic in rehandling the Khuk by making use of the pariwa ki aka cho as the hole to fix the first rivet

My 1st thought exactly.

The feel of Gelbu was that you could swing it like a weapon and not much of a chopper.

Before the chopping session, i measured the spine thickness at 0.93cm (0.366"). H.I khuk is overbuilt as that thickness is a norm for chopper.

The rivets and the cho-less design were built so that it could take more abuse (not that i don't have any chopper to finish the job) and certainly is heavier than normal gelbu. I believed the bulkier handle is made for better grip.All these convinced me to push the blade a little harder.

Basically the blade was made a lot more shorter (i think it's meant for 21") and Pala used the pariwa ki as the 1st rivet hole and cut the blade shorter.
The walnut handle was made to suit the shape of palm and i sanded the edges off for better feel.

Now all i need is tung oil.

Gelbu special- truly a blade by its own.

 

[warty]

I almost snagged that one but let it go... I like the look of it and I am glad it is a good chopper too. I still think it got off easy compared to Mr. ASTK.
Sort of proving my point that Mr. Gelbu is more of a supervisory sort of goober.

 

[JayGoliath]

I almost snagged that one but let it go... I like the look of it and I am glad it is a good chopper too.

Once a while you gotta let the remoras take the bite.

I still think it got off easy compared to Mr. ASTK.
Sort of proving my point that Mr. Gelbu is more of a supervisory sort of goober.

Mr.Gelbu sings "weapon" to me. ASTK is the "AYO GORKHALI" kinda blade.
Mr Singh would be proud.