the pro for me on my mccurdy is the handle size. if i were to get a tora or traditional styled kukri, i run the risk of my hand being wwwaaaayyyyy to big for it, as i am 6 foot 5, the bigger and thicker the handle, the better control i will have over it. the only con i found was that the tapered full tang is not 100% aligned with the blade, its slightly crooked and the fullers are uneven when you look at the spine, you can see they dont meet at the same spot. it doesnt affect the functions, but i nit picked it to hell when i first got mine. is this common among HI khuks too? i understand handmade items are typically flawed aesthetically.
i would LOVE a 22" or 18" bonecutter, CS Graves's looks bad ass, and the one on youtube where the dude cut a keyboard in half was nice too, but i would want a villager finish on the blade. im just gonna beat it to hell anyways. a nice bonecutter and a busse gladius...do want.
its not that we are too big, everyone else is too small.
I just noticed another flaw with my mccurdy khuk. the blade is slightly warped just below the sweet spot. i assume this is from the heat treatment. hopefully my future bonecutter/m43 does not have this. i would be quite upset. but i guess that is what you expect when every blade you owned for years was assembled by machines and laser cut from billet steel. my wallet cries every time i see a sweet bonecutter and when i drool over the busse gladius's for sale.
Welcome Sean,
I am very much like you, I am anal and picky as hell and expect perfection, but with these handmade items expect some variations. I've probably seen fewer than a dozen "perfect" kukris. Almost always the variations don't ever affect function though. (I'm also "normal sized myself, at 6' 8" and 300+ lbs {don't ask!
} with large hands.)
The one thing that used to drive me nuts, that I could never really do anything about were sloppily cut handle rings. The blade would be great and the rings were just so poorly done that you know they were just phoned in. On a couple I couldn't stand looking at them so sanded them off. That was years ago though and I haven't seen it on several newer kukris, and of course that isn't an issue on M43's and other smooth handled models. They are hand cut, so I expect to see
some drifting, but not 3/8" difference between the cuts from one side of the handle to the other.
I have two McCurdy's and both mine are flawless; I know what you're saying but see no blade wavering. I can tell you on HI's you are much more likely to see some wave in the blade on the big flat blades, like Samshers, Foxy Folly's, Dui Chirras, Tin Chirras, etc., than you will on the WWII's and AK's or other standard blades. When you think about it the kami has a huge red hot flat piece of steel and is hitting it with a hammer on an anvil buried in the ground that is about 3" on a side. It is extremely difficult to not have some wavering in the steel when the blade is not only long, but wide and flat as well, with significant distal taper. I would need a power hammer and a huge flat base to do half as good a job as they do by hand every day.
Sometimes as well you will see the handle turned "out" a bit in relation to the blade, but again, you usually have to look at it from the underside (edge up) to notice it, and it normally doesn't affect usage.
What I like about Tirtha is that he doesn't seem to have any of these problems, and despite being productive as hell doesn't seem to have issues even Bura used to have from time to time. I've only been back for a while, but the guy impresses the heck out of me.
BTW, on a new kukri I go through the following 12 pt. inspection ritual; (I have a feeling you can relate:
)
1) Turn the blade upside down and see if the line of the edge lines up with the pommel. Is the pommel out of line to the right or the left?
2) While sighting down the edge facing up, is the edge dead straight? Or does it have a wave anywhere along the length? On rare extreme cases with edge waver the handle will actually turn in your hand when you chop, which means you wasted your money.
3) Hold it normally and sight down the handle at both sides of the formed bolster. Is the bolster angled the same on both the left / right sides? And on a Chiruwa handle is one handle slab longer than the other where it meets the bolster?
4) Is there a clean transition between the handle and the bolster metal on the front and the pommel cap at the rear? Or are there gaps there where the handle was fitted?
5) On a chiruwa tang handle is the handle material below the metal tang, or was the tang properly blended to the handle? Are the handle pins also properly fitted, or are there gaps where they go through the material?
6) Is the cho / kaudi properly offset from the bolster, or is it 2" up the blade?
7) Is the sword of shiva cut straight on both sides of the blade? And if inlaid, was it done neatly, and if inlaid was it subsequently over-buffed out?
8) As you mentioned, if it is a fullered blade, are the fullers basically the same on both sides of the blade? Or does one go an inch or more beyond the other?
9) If there are handle rings or handle carvings, are they straight, and are they not over-buffed out? (I have a unique Sher S-1 Karda with a ton of cross-hatched lines laboriously carved in the horn handle, and most of them were then buffed off...
)
10) Is there excess laha squeezed out of the bolster and onto either the handle or the blade?
11) If the knife has a guard, is it even top, bottom and sides? Nothing like a crooked piece of brass to ruin the look of a nice handle and blade.
12) Finally, is the scabbard properly fitted to the _blade_ and not to the bolster if it is an habaki design? That was a problem for a while, that I think was overtaken by design changes several years ago, not to mention a new sarki who has a very nice product. Fitting to the bolster is also dangerous as can be, and can easily lead to a chunk being taken out of your foot when the kukri comes hurtling out of the scabbard.
After all that I take a file or hardened edge burnisher and run it along the edge and try to get an idea of how well the edge is hardened. If the file skates and the blade rings you've got a good idea of how hard it is, as opposed to the file dragging on soft dead steel.
I hope you get the Bonecutter you're looking for, and again, welcome to the forum. It's good to have another "picky SOB" here...
Norm
P.S. If you ever use your blade it will automatically end up with the "Villager finish" you mention on the blade, unless you want to buff it back to full polish every time. I just take WD-40 and a green scotch-brite pad to them after chopping, and it neatly gets the scuffs out of the blade and leaves a nice even satin finish.
. I think you'll enjoy HI khuks very much. If you did get one with issues that troubled you, Auntie will make it right. It seems her policy isn't just getting you the product you ordered, but making you happy. It's hard to find someone unhappy with HI around here. Take care.
:thumbup:
