Chopping with a Kukri

G

g123

Joined
Oct 25, 2009
Messages
329
Hi Guys,

I read through the library sticky and am still looking for a little help.

Can you guys give me a link to a tutorial video on the proper technique to chop with a Kukri. I have seen a lot of people chopping with Kukri's on You Tube, but they looked like they were novices also.

Thanks,

Geoff
 
If nobody else puts one up I'll try to do a little one tomorrow.
Flexible but firm grip with thumb, index and middle finger, snap the ring and pinkie tight just at impact. I tend to fire it off like a punch-hip, shoulder, elbow and wrist/grip snap. Sorta like cracking a whip.
 
I do it like in short stick fighting.
Fingers like described above by JW. I add a flick of the wrist a movement of the arm movement of the shoulder and hip and a drop of the whole body.
All these movements end at the same time adding each other's force into the impact. Then afterwards I pull it back close to my body.

If you need less force then adjust accordingly. For completely soft targets it's more slicing and let the edge do most of the work while you just pull it through.
 
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Small chops, let the blade do most of the work, don't try to "power through" the wood. During the swing you're imparting speed to the blade. At the point of impact your grip is stabilizing the handle end while the blade end chops into the wood.

I saw one Youtube video of a guy with a khukuri hacking away at a log like it was his worst enemy. My wrist hurt just watching him.
 
For me, I simply started hitting a dead tree until I could find advantages of the kukri.

For me, I like to grip lightly on handle like some have said in other threads.
 
Im getting old....hard to believe that there are folks that have never wielded, let alone sharpened, a hatchet, axe, hunting knife or chainsaw. But of course after a life on the ranch and in the woods my back, shoulders and elbows are shot. I can't even throw a ball anymore unless it is underhand!
 
g123 said:
Hi Guys,

I read through the library sticky and am still looking for a little help.

Can you guys give me a link to a tutorial video on the proper technique to chop with a Kukri. I have seen a lot of people chopping with Kukri's on You Tube, but they looked like they were novices also.

Thanks,

Geoff
Click to expand...

davidf99 said:
Small chops, let the blade do most of the work, don't try to "power through" the wood. During the swing you're imparting speed to the blade. At the point of impact your grip is stabilizing the handle end while the blade end chops into the wood.

I saw one Youtube video of a guy with a khukuri hacking away at a log like it was his worst enemy. My wrist hurt just watching him.
Click to expand...

You mean this guy David?
I hadn't sharpened the khukuri and it wasn't as sharp as it could be. Add to that the log was harder than I thought it was, which led me trying to muscle it a little. Normally I'm thru a log that size with much fewer chops with my 18" CAK :D :foot:
Ordinarily, you want to use the snap cut technique hitting the sweet spot and alternate strokes like you would use a hatchet to blow out the chunks.

[video=youtube_share;IDEhK9EBaZg]http://youtu.be/IDEhK9EBaZg[/video]
 
Little exercise for who wants to rely on fingers or wrist alone and "let the Kukri do the work"
Open and close your hands completely as often as you can for one minute.
This should demonstrate how tiring it is to rely one muscle group alone. If you do it as fast as you can you will see how slow it gets at the end of just one minute.
It's also good training for Kukri work and needs no expensive gym or equipment :-)
How many can you do? 100 isn't bad, just make sure to completely open and close the hands.
 
Can you say "AAAARGGGGGHHH" I did. Talk about hand cramps Jens.

LOL. Karda, You really ought to hide that vid and do another where the log is 80% cut through from behind with a thin saw. Then "chop" through it in 1-2 strokes. Don't you know how to setup for these type of videos demoing blades? LOL just kidding. I much prefer reality to the hype. Seeing that logs don't magically jump apart at the approach of a Khuk and that you need to maintain your tools (sharpening anyone) is an important thing to highlight so people understand why we DO love khuks. Otherwise they get one and when they can't repeat the "magic" feel the whole classification just sucks.

As far as chopping style. I find that a controlled motion that uses a bit of drop at the legs/hips, a bit of turn at the waist, more effort at the shoulder, a bit of elbow and a moderate amount of wrist snap, all with a medium loose grip, that sort of adds to the snap but doesn't "Work" at it keeps any one muscle from being the weak spot that tires out quicker than the rest of me. My shoulders are by far the most involved in my swing. But as someone that used to swim competetively my shoulders are one of my strongest muscle groups so that works well for me. The basic technique is the same overall. but I think each of us modifies the swing a bit to rely on the unique mucles of each person.
 
ClarksRifles said:
Im getting old....hard to believe that there are folks that have never wielded, let alone sharpened, a hatchet, axe, hunting knife or chainsaw. But of course after a life on the ranch and in the woods my back, shoulders and elbows are shot. I can't even throw a ball anymore unless it is underhand!
Click to expand...

I can really sharpen a chain saw, spent a lot of time behind one of those. My little saw would run with the big boys since I kept it sharp, they'd just run all day, the minute mine would slow down I'd touch it up and be like new again. The trick to keeping it sharp is to not let it get dull. I can do ok on a hatchet too. Used to be able to do knives but I've lost something over time and sometimes just have a hard time of it.
 
Then I like to sort of open up each side by changing sides and if I can come in from the bottom


 
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