First village khukuris arrived -- surprise, surprise!

Mine came the other day.

It reminds me of a tool I would see hanging in a barn. It is honest and functional. I would no more polish it up than I would go out in the evenings to polish the pitchfork. This one is destined to ride around with me in my truck. Now I can stop worrying about my Ang Khola every time I walk over the crest of a hill and lose sight of the truck.

It is a wonderful service to have a knowledgeable and good-willed gentleman like Kami to check these rough blades for quality and function. I suspect I would be more easily fooled by appearances than he. As it is, my brief inspection and usage of this blade tells me that he did an excellent job.

Coronach

The village khukuri I received is very similar to my 15” AK, discounting finish. The AK is slightly longer and heavier, with more weight forward on the blade. The AK has a slight edge in chopping ability, but not a great one. The village khukuri fits better in a daypack. I haven’t had a chance to test edge holding, which is one of the great strengths of my AK. Time, and the other forumites, will tell how this batch of village khukuris do as far as tempering and edge holding. Of course, the results will not generalize to the next batch of village khukuris.
 
Thanks for report, Howard.

As a general rule, I think we can pretty much expect the same from most village khukuris Kami ships to us. I never saw a village khukuri that wasn't really tough and I never saw one that was all polished up and pretty.
This is pretty much what we will be getting.

Uncle Bill
 
I was doing some testing yesterday and bent the tip on my village model. I stabbed the tip into my wood splitting block and was snapping it out to see how the tip would hold up and bent it pretty good. I was able to straighten it out and it seems no worse for the wear. Just thought you might like to know.
Mike

[This message has been edited by Jaeger (edited 16 May 1999).]
 
Hi Mike:

A HI khukuri the villagers ain't -- they will not do what an HI khukuri does and very few knives will. The only good thing that I can see to come out of your experience is the tip didn't break. I am a bit surprised and I 'll get you another villager of some kind if you destroy the one I sent.

Thanks for feedback and keep us informed.

Uncle Bill
 
I can think of two things offhand that might have contributed to the bent tip:

1) Most early knives were made with a stick tang for the reason steel was scarce. That may hold true still in Nepal. The typical village khukuri's blade is probably somewhat thinner than the HI's for that same reason.

2) A tool that may be regularly used in digging would be softer tempered toward the tip to prevent chipping/cracking. Also, just as everyone in the old west knew better than to carry a live round under the hammer in the old single action revolvers, a kami selling to locals could take for granted his customers knew better than to abuse the knife by prying any more than needed.

At least it sounds logical to me. Am I even in the ballpark on this Uncle Bill?
 
It's all HI's fault! Before I got my AK I never would have thought to abuse a knife in that manner. Now I am spoiled!! (actually my Beck Tracker will put up with untold amounts of abuse also) My AK has raised my expectations of what a good knife can do.

Seriously Uncle Bill, a replacement is not necessary. It seems to be fine and I am sure it will serve me well for many, many years. I'll leave the torture testing to Cliff from now on.

Rusty, I had your second point figured out on my own, but what is a "stick tang" that you mentioned in your first point?

Mike
 
Just got back from camp where I had the opportunity to use both the villager and the 15" AK.

I cleared saplings, emerging brush and further splitted quartered logs into kindling. Both performed admirably with no damage and kept an edge. The thicker, heavier and more polished AK performed better for the heavier stuff. The villager's smaller size struck me as being very suitable for backpacking and marital arts application (since I not yet used to these heavier blades). Swinging the villager felt not much different from swinging rattan sticks.

I love both khukuris. I left the villager at camp and brought the AK back home since I didn't want to risk the small chance of theft. My villager needs a bigger brother to keep it company.
smile.gif


sing

[This message has been edited by sing (edited 17 May 1999).]
 
Rusty, I think you are very close. Necessity is the mother of invention but what the kamis discovered about the stick tang was it put more weight forward and also absorbed some shock. Now they think it is a better "design" and claim Indian kamis can't make a decent stick tang so that's why they generally make a pana butta!

A word of warning to those who own both Hi and villagers: As Cliff has demonstrated several times during his testing there are very few knives around that will take the punishment that an HI will take without some sort of failure. The village knife is the same. It simply won't do what an HI khukuri will do because it is not made the same.

And, sing, thanks for the feedback from the field. Everyday use is the best measure of performance. Any knife that does the job you want it to do is a winner.

Uncle Bill
 
Mike, a "stick tang" is like a rat tail handle on a file, and may as on local villagers, go only partly through the handle ( these are the ones Bill keeps talking about eventually failing ) or it may extend all the way throught the handle as on this batch ( and all HI's ) and go through an end plate and then be peened or mushroomed to keep it from loosening. In the center of the brass buttcap, or plate, you'll see the steel in the very center of the diamond . The handle material completely encloses it except at the butt.

Nepali khukuris use this rather than a full tang where the tang follows the outline of the grip underneath screwed or riveted on handle slabs. Indian kukris usually go full tang. Full tang is stronger but uses more metal, and the stick tang can not only be stronger than needed, when set in himalayan epoxy it dampens the vibrations transmitted through the handle to your hand.

Anyway, my comments were a SWAG, but seemed reasonable, so I figured I'd ask Bill about them, and maybe learn something.
 
A picture is worth a thousand words if you can get it to post. Here's HI owner, Kami Sherpa, making a khukuri handle. The stick or tapered tang is shown in the white circle.

Interestingly, I got no flak about the full tang pana butta handle on the Cobalt Special. I guess this is because it is our design and is not a khukuri.

Uncle Bill


<img src = "http://members.aol.com/yangduspag/pict54.jpg">

[This message has been edited by Bill Martino (edited 17 May 1999).]
 
Bill and Rusty,

Thanks for the feedback. I dropped off the villager at my father in law's shop today. (My attempts at polishing it were unsatisfactory) He's going to clean it up for me. He'll probably be taking measurements also. He wants to try his hand at a traditional kuhkuri. He has been making knives for years and looking for the "perfect" survival/camp knife and has come up with many good designs. He is now completely taken with my AK and feels that the villager will make a great general purpose camping/gardening/everyday dirty work type of knife.
Uncle Bill, I would imagine that you will be getting an order from him before the summer is out. I'll snap a picture and send it to you when the villager is done.

Mike
 
Hi Mike:

I got a request for a brochure from your father-in-law and sent him one. If he is a maker you are probably right -- he'll order a khukuri. But which one? There are a lot of different options and I'm betting he's trying to weigh which one will be the best for him.

When the picture gets here I'll post it -- or you can do it from there if you can get it scanned.

Uncle Bill
 
Okay, okay...I'll admit to being dumb as well as ugly. What exactly is a "pana butta"? I've heard this term tossed around on the forums for some time, but I've never been sure of what it means. From the context in which it has been used, I'm guessing that it describes a full (exposed) tang knife with slab (?) sided handles. I'm probably wrong in this assumption...any information you can provide to further my cutlery education would be appreciated.

Jim
 
See, Jim, you are not as dumb as you let on to be and are probably not as ugly as you say you are, either. You are exactly correct in your assumption. Pana butta roughly translated means "riveted through." Sonam can probably provide a more accurate translation than me so have at it Nephew.

Uncle Bill
 
Uncle Bill -

Thanks for the information. I'm sorry if I seemed to be laying the self-deprecating humor (?) on a little thick in my last post…I'm really not trying to come across like the poster child for low self-esteem (in fact many of my friends have accused me of being insufferably arrogant at times)
wink.gif
. I'll just have to work on tweaking the attitude a bit…

By the way...I just picked up my new HI BAS at the post office. Another excellent, well-constructed blade. I was very pleasantly surprised by the "quickness" of this knife and the unexpected differences in details between the BAS and other khukuris I own (the engraving on the blade, the frog (?), etc.). I'm afraid that I'm becoming addicted to these things. I'll contact you when I need another fix…
smile.gif


Jim
 
Have done a little work on my villager. Need to pick up a small rasp to take down more of the handle behind the ring. Blade is starting to look better. Lots of handwork, sanding, to do yet. Ought to look pretty decent when done though. Getting to like the handy size of it too.
 
Look out, Jim. We all see the makings of HIKV coming on.

Rusty, the more you play with that villager the more you will like it. Be careful or it may become your favorite.

Uncle Bill
 
UglyJim,

Re: "pana butta" what Uncle Bill says is pretty much the exact translation as far as I know - "riveted through", though I'm afraid I'll have to wait until I go back home next time to get the exact meaning for "pana". From what I understand, "pana" are the rivets, and "butta" means "dot or hole" so "pana butta" means "rivets driven through". On the other hand, "pana" also means "sheet" in which case it could refer to the flat tang, thus meaning "flat tang with rivets driven through".

To make it more confusing, another word to describe the same thing you'll frequently come across is "pana wala". The word "wala" means "of/belonging to", thus a "pana wala khukuri" is a "khukuri with rivets" or a "khukuri with a flat tang".

Hope that helps.

- Sonam
 
Found a rasp, handle now right size but needs lots more TLC with sandpaper, stain, etc. But what I wanted to tell you before I forgot, is that my sheath was too tight to draw from w/o slicing the leather so I filed down the edge on the blade's belly (by about an eighth inch) and now I can slip it in and out with room to spare but I gotta shape and resharpen the edge.
 
Thanks for translation help, Nephew. Do you know the name of that old Nepali folk song about a boy heading down to the bazaar to chat with the beautiful girls and carrying his "Sirupati" khukuri?

Rusty, better slow down on postings like your last one or you will be hearing from Kami Sherpa offering you a job in Shop 2!

Uncle Bill
 
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