Desert Island Khuk

Cheers Spiral, that makes more sense than my explanation. Actually, maybe the blade shape and lack of a Cho suggest that the shape etc are particular to the area?
 
on a deserted island I'd take along my 18" AK, on a desert island I'd take along a 55 gallon drum of potable water and a cell-phone.
 
Sorry Crooked, no signal for the phone. Actually I would take the Royal Yacht Brittania (with crew) and supplies for the trip home.
 
For lack of a better name and the usual lack of any record the name "Pioneer" is as good as any. I have heard that this machete was carried by everyone from special British units in India to the Chindits to the the Burma Rifles to any engineering/pioneer regiment.

The only picture I have seen is at the NAM of British troops hacking away at bamboo in India, but no unit is named.

They are sturdy and crude and always marked. The 2 pictured here are 1919 and 1927 (bottom pix). There also is an assortment of other mysterious numbers but both the knife and the scabbards have a British-India broadarrow. The upper scabbard is a WW II model and I will just assume someone needed a scabbard for this thing and in it went. The lower piece is 2lbs 2oz and 17" o/a.
pioneers.jpg
 
John-- crude but beautiful in their own way. Any thoughts on the lack of cho? Is it because they were mass-produced?
--Josh
 
I don't think these had anything to do with the Gurkhas except for the efficient blade shape. These were mass produced sheets of raw steel, tempered once and scale grips riveted on.
 
Cheers John, that was basically what I was thinking, it just doesn't look like a blade that would be issued to troops as a Khuk, its too 'rough' for that. How What are their dimentions like, length bredth and such, just out of interest?
 
I am a bit surprised John, That you say mass produced sheets of raw steel?

I would have though mass proced steel would be a lot more perfect finnish & without the distal taper?

Funny realy it appears my most effcient kukri is not a kukri!

I Guess it shouldnt realy be in kukri FAQs either then.

I must admit Ron Flook got it wrong about the British Indian army Dha as well as he calls that a machette!

Perhaps I should file a cho on it!

So JP back to the thread,
What with your wonderfull collection of kuks, What one would you take to a desert island?

Cheers,
Spiral
 
The folks who know this kind of thing tell me it's the most basic type of blade manufacture. I agree.

Ron Flook came up with his own conclusions and w/o seeing anything to the contrary it's hard to say what is right or wrong, but what I said applies. I wouldn't have referred to it as a dha however. His book is an absloute great reference piece, but even he leaves some questions unanswered. There just is no way to verify many things.

Why shouldn't it be in the FAQ? It's a kukri style with a real history. Plus being a very good, solid knife that gets the job done minus the finesse of a kukri.
 
Hi John,

I was not calling the pioneer a dha, I was refering to the square ended dha on pages 200,201& 202 0ff Ron Flooks excelant book. {The best Commonwealth military knife book I own! }That he hapens to call Indian machetes.

As for the kukri Faq I was making a poor attempt at sarcasm or humour, I do apologise!

I for one am very glade its counted as a unidentified kukri object!

I think its a great tool!

I am still curius as to what kuk you would take to a desert island though?!

Cheers,Spiral
 
On a desserted island? I would have to know just where the desserted island is on a latitude scale. Is it a tropical Island or a temperate island?
For a tropical island it would be my 21"+ Chitlangi. And for a temperate island my BGRS.:D

Doh!!!! Went back to the first post and see it's a desert island. In that case I will stick with my BGRS. Heavy enough to cut up driftwood for shelter and yet not so heavy as to be uncomfortable to carry while foraging for things to survive with.:D
 
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