- Joined
- Mar 5, 1999
- Messages
- 34,096
It is not just Cliff who puts knives to the limits. Many HI customers test their khukuris much the same way as Cliff does. As an example here is an excerpt from a letter I received from a customer just today regarding testing.
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My first test is 30 chops into a hard wood stump. Then I chop dark hardwood into kindling. Third, I cut up pieces of tar asphalt roofing material. Then I drive the blade into the stump using a piece of firewood to hit the back of the blade until it is driven fully into the stump. Then I wedge it out. Then I bang the blade into the stump hitting the flat of the blade first right and then left. Then I chop up steel wire wrapped around a wood block. Then I put a brick on two 4x4s and break it two with the spine of the blade. Then I break a cement block with the spine. Then I stab and cut up an aluminum sheet.
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A couple of his HI khukuris suffered minor impaction of the blade while chopping the steel wire which the customer expected. Like me, Cliff and others who test severely he expected some damage. It is the extent of the damage that is important. Later in the letter he states, "I can trust my life or the life of my loved ones to these great blades."
These are my kind of customers! I encourage all my customers to test out their khukuris in a similar fashion. I am not physically able to rigorously test every khukuri I send out nor do I have the time so I depend on my customers to help me out. If a knife is going to fail it will almost always fail during these severe tests as Cliff routinely demonstrates and that's the time to catch it -- in your back yard and not when you find yourself in an emergency situation. Once tested and passed the knife has proven its capability and will most likely go on performing for fifty or a hundred years as it did during the test period. If your knife fails then send it back and I'll replace it and keep on replacing it until we find one that won't fail. And that's a promise and a very easy one for me to keep.
Uncle Bill
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My first test is 30 chops into a hard wood stump. Then I chop dark hardwood into kindling. Third, I cut up pieces of tar asphalt roofing material. Then I drive the blade into the stump using a piece of firewood to hit the back of the blade until it is driven fully into the stump. Then I wedge it out. Then I bang the blade into the stump hitting the flat of the blade first right and then left. Then I chop up steel wire wrapped around a wood block. Then I put a brick on two 4x4s and break it two with the spine of the blade. Then I break a cement block with the spine. Then I stab and cut up an aluminum sheet.
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A couple of his HI khukuris suffered minor impaction of the blade while chopping the steel wire which the customer expected. Like me, Cliff and others who test severely he expected some damage. It is the extent of the damage that is important. Later in the letter he states, "I can trust my life or the life of my loved ones to these great blades."
These are my kind of customers! I encourage all my customers to test out their khukuris in a similar fashion. I am not physically able to rigorously test every khukuri I send out nor do I have the time so I depend on my customers to help me out. If a knife is going to fail it will almost always fail during these severe tests as Cliff routinely demonstrates and that's the time to catch it -- in your back yard and not when you find yourself in an emergency situation. Once tested and passed the knife has proven its capability and will most likely go on performing for fifty or a hundred years as it did during the test period. If your knife fails then send it back and I'll replace it and keep on replacing it until we find one that won't fail. And that's a promise and a very easy one for me to keep.
Uncle Bill
