Forget the village models. Email from Pala via Dambar. Please read.

Bill Martino

Bill Martino

Joined
Mar 5, 1999
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After hashing everything over here's the response:
==================================

Dear Didi& Bena Namaste.
Regarding Bir Gorkha Village model,Pala says that our workers are too expensive to make these. If we order outside,we need to go out of valley like Dharan or Tehrathum which is not safer these day to travel. As you might have known that the crisis under our country is increasing day by day.Even they started bombing, explosives & violency in the capital city,Kathmandu.He also says that the strong village model khukuri exceeds the weight that cause the high transportation cost &other taxes as well.
These days, we are facing problem on carrying goods from India because of crisis under our country.Pala says that we shall keep village model in our mind & and proceed soon.Sometime even we cann`t get things to buy needed to make our own khukuries.No matter we can countinue our business without any disturbances.we have prepared items for about 60-70 pieces.This time we are testing hardening & perfection of khukuries very strictly so that we may not have any complain from our customers.We have our next shipment soon.We didn`t get any information on the delivery of items of 35 pieces dated on the 10th of April 2002. Please inform us soon.Thanking you.
With Love
Dambar Bhattarai

==============================

Not a lot of good news coming out of Nepal these days.

Stay tuned.
 
Bill,
Pass the word,"just keep sending K's",guys say they will still buy!! Those SOB'S WILL NOT STOP ME FROM BUYING & HELPING THE GOOD GUYS OUT!
jim
 
On second thought maybe I should add a little translation.

First," our kamis are too expensive" -- a village kami and kamis in other shops do well to make a dollar a day and this is one of the reasons their khukuris are cheap. I'll use the analogy of the racehorse again -- you don't buy a racehorse for a million bucks and hook him to a plow.

Shipping costs -- we have to use UPS express to get fast and guaranteed delivery. Since September the average shipping cost per khukuri (and this includes some 2 or 3 ounce kagas katnes, too) is about $ 15 per khukuri. This is UPS cost only and does not include packing labor and materials or journey to UPS office or bribes involved to get khukuris down the road and onto the plane. A good sized village model will cost $25 just to get it here.

Bottom line I guess is Pala figures it's just not worth it.

But stay tuned. Sometimes things can change in a day.
 
Would it be possible to special-order unpolished or semi-polished versions of current patterns?

It seemed like most of the excitement was about blades that weren't too pretty to use, and I recall one person requesting a working BGRS while we were still hashing this out. Also, the thinking was that less finished blades would be faster to produce, or at least allow more time for quality-control issues at the same production rate.
 
Originally posted by jim_l_clifton
Bill,
Pass the word,"just keep sending K's",guys say they will still buy!! Those SOB'S WILL NOT STOP ME FROM BUYING & HELPING THE GOOD GUYS OUT!
jim
Click to expand...

I'll second that.
 
It sounds like Tohatchi NM has a good point. Also with using the same models there would be no additional shipping from a change in weight.

Some of the younger guys going to school may not be too well fixed to polish up some of the rough Khuks. Most of us older gents have some kind of equipment to clean them up pretty well, and those mirror finishes take time. This is kind of what I was trying to get at with you Uncle Bill when I told you that pretty doesn't always cut it.
Don't any of you Gents get me wrong, I enjoy these shiny things we have been getting. I am thinking about a kami that is working his tail off, shaping blades, tempering, putting handles on them and polishing. all this and worry about some jerk throwing a fire bomb in the shop or at his family while he is working. Seems to me we have been lucky to get as good a blades as we have been getting, and the pressure on the kamis is not going to get any easier.:mad: :mad: :mad:
 
Seems to me we have been lucky to get as good a blades as we have been getting, and the pressure on the kamis is not going to get any easier.
Click to expand...

Very true!!
 
Stay tuned. It's a capitalistic shop and pretty democratic. They may come up with something. I know they are kicking it around.
 
Would it be possible to special-order unpolished or semi-polished versions of current patterns?
Click to expand...
:o I guess I haven't been lurking long enough.

That's exactly what I thought was being requested of them.

? Bill ?

Would they ship 'unpolished forge-marked hardened/unhardened blade-blanks' (sharpened/unsharpened)?

Would they ship 'kits' containing the above plus handle parts?

I would be interested in both the above.

Would either of the above sell at a reasonable price RE their time compared to finished blades?

Seems like they could make more money on a bare blade.

80% rule: "It takes 80% of a resource [time here] to complete the last 20% of an activity."

I'm sure you'll help them work things out for the best. You have a good idea what will sell and what it takes to produce the item.

Best wishes to you/them all,
dean
 
Originally posted by ddean

That's exactly what I thought was being requested of them.
Click to expand...

I think Uncle Bill's final request was for "blades just like you'd make your neighbors" which got interpreted as "plain, thick, heavy" I'd imagine not too many Nepali's who can afford a basic BirGorkha model, even stripped down, and I'm not sure how many of them would want the "thin blades" we've been getting (see the thread about Bura's response to the rolled edge problems).

It appears that without a model, there is considerable room (tens of thousands of miles and centuries of cultural heritage) for interpretation (read: what the h*** do they want NOW?!?!) of our odd, erratic and decadent requests.
 
Uncle Bill
Seem like lots of the forumites are willing to help in some way, especially by buying some more Kukris. Can you give us an idea which item would give the Kamis the most work and profit.
You mentioned that the shipping cost is $25 to get on a plane to the US, and more to ship from Reno to our location. So a $75 PGA -$25 shipping -more shipping = not a lot of actual profit.
Would if help if we order more expensive stuff, like the Cherokee rose, Chitalni, Kimithomo, etc. I assume the same shipping applies to all Kukris, and having to do more work on each kukri means more work for the kamis and less need to go out to get springs, horns, woodd, etc where it is dangerous.
 
And you still don't have the materials cost.
Steel, Brass, Wood and Horn cost them money. Then there is fuel to heat that steel, electicity for grinding and polishing, and then one of the biggies will be wages. After all these costs and we get some of these knives for the prices that we do leaves very little actual profit.

For the present prices, I say give me a knife that I can rely on when the "s--t hits the fan", the hardness it is supposed to be, a little sharp, and after that I don't mind if it has nothing but a smooth wire brush finish.

Look at most of the knives made int this country that people are paying well over the century mark for, and look at the finish. And still not as strong as hardly any thing on the HI list.
 
our odd, erratic and decadent requests.
Click to expand...
I hope there is some way to convey to them the manner in which we are crazy.

That, #1, there is a hefty percentage of us that can often find forge marks more interesting, or more 'natural', or even more beautiful than 'perfect' polished blades; and that ,#2, many of us take genuine pleasure in doing what the kamis are finding to be stressful work due to the pressures on their production.

[sigh]
 
Most of the added value in a Birgorkha khukuri is due to the labor involved in constructing it. There would be less profit in shipping raw materials over here. The more labor put in to the item at Birgorkha, the more potential profit. Also, the bigger the value for the end customer in comparison to similar crafted items produced where labor is more expensive. I believe that this is what Kami Sherpa is saying.

Following this logic, perhaps they should create more carved handles, tooled leather sheathes, inlays, and kothimodas. Those items sell here at higher prices than the standard models, and are astounding values to the HI customer. The mass of raw materials is not so great, and the use of the value-added labor is maximized.
 
That sounds great Howard. I imagine that some handles in reserve would be of great benefit to those of us who need to change them out. It still keeps them looking the same too.
Carving a horn handle would much easier if it is separate. Esp.,For a guy like me who possesses 11 thumbs.:rolleyes:

Wal. suggested a Garud Horn handle earlier. That's my wish list topper.
 
I exepect using the postal service was considered, but what is the reason for not using airmail (or global priority mail, if available)? Airmail should be cheaper than UPS international express delivery.

Another idea to kick around: how about setting up an auxiliary operation or office in Darjeeling or somewhere else in India, and shipping there from Nepal, and thence to you? Airmail might be a more feasible from there. Get 2 birds with one stone, if they already buy materials in India as was mentioned somewhere. Customs (import-export) might be double the hassle, though
 
Well, this is bad news. Or good news. Or both.

Bad news, because I'd definitely have bought one. Good news, for the same reason.

What I'd had in mind was basically a line of plain-Jane utility models instead of the fully-finished PGAs; the same basic knives, but without the mirror finishes, inlays &c &c. The same blades, the same prices, but less time spent on finish & embellishment
 
Originally posted by Howard Wallace
Most of the added value in a Birgorkha khukuri is due to the labor involved in constructing it. There would be less profit in shipping raw materials over here. The more labor put in to the item at Birgorkha, the more potential profit. Also, the bigger the value for the end customer in comparison to similar crafted items produced where labor is more expensive. I believe that this is what Kami Sherpa is saying.

Following this logic, perhaps they should create more carved handles, tooled leather sheathes, inlays, and kothimodas. Those items sell here at higher prices than the standard models, and are astounding values to the HI customer. The mass of raw materials is not so great, and the use of the value-added labor is maximized.
Click to expand...

Howard makes a lot of sense here as usual. I have to agree with Howard although I really would have liked to have had a few BirGhorka Village models based on the same patterns the kamis are used to making. It still seems to me that without the fancy polish the kamis could produce more, but anything gained by producing more would be lost in the reduced cost of the khukuri to the customer and that is not at all satisfactory.

Pala said:
"He also says that the strong village model khukuri exceeds the weight that cause the high transportation cost &other taxes as well."
Click to expand...
I'm not real sure what Pala means by this since all of the village models I've gotten are all lighter and thinner than the standard H.I.Khukuri's, even the little 15" Village Chiruwa AK.:confused:
However,
I do know that Pala does know best what's going on in Nepal and what the best course of action is for H.I. and BirGhorka.

"Sometime even we cann`t get things to buy needed to make our own khukuries.No matter we can countinue our business without any disturbances.we have prepared items for about 60-70 pieces."
Click to expand...
From what I gather here Pala is also concerned about a material shortage. See underlined sentence above.
 
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