Gakulu

[stjames]

I recently came into possesion of this knife;

The box it came with was marked Sebenza Gakulu Prototype.

So Anne, just what does Gakulu mean?

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James Segura
San Francisco, CA

 

[Elvislives]

Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaalllllllyyyyyyyyyyyy...

I'am all ears......

Brandon

 

[Pergatory]

FOR GOODNESS'S SAKE MAN, OPEN THE BLADE!!!! LET US SEE THE BLADE!!!! I'M DYING OVER HERE!!

 

[stjames]

A few shots before i leave for the weekend

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James Segura
San Francisco, CA

 

[blademan 13]

James! You are in extreme danger! Gakulu is an ancient Zulu God of Misfortune. Anyone possessing one of his sacred items shall immediately begin to experience untold trials, tribulations and bad luck. If it is not too late, save yourself. You must part with the knife NOW. If you need a place to get rid of it, drop me a line and I'll send you my address

 

[Ralf]

Hmmmm, not too special. Looks like your average plain jane large Sebenza, except for the polished blade.

 

[Dennis Wright]

Ralf, I was thinking the same thing, except that I think it's smaller. Maybe somewhere between Small Seb and Umfaan? Also the edges are definitely softened.

It would be interesting to know the story behind this one.

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Dennis Wright
Wright Knife & Sporting Goods
La Mesa, CA
1-800-400-1980
wrightknife@ixpres.com
("Have a knife day!")

 

[SALTY]

Gakulu verb a)To possess something coveted by cultured others; b)To seize a moment in a chronology of events leading to destiny; c)If you've gone this far you must realize that I do not have a clue except for how nice that knife is.

Looking forward to the answer ... and the story.

 

[stjames]

The knife is one of the prototypes made when they decided to change the design of the knife in 1995, i believe. It is the large size with an ATS-34 blade. I'll try and take some comparison pictures after the weekend.

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James Segura
San Francisco, CA

 

[Deon]

James, "Gakulu" means "big" and maybe relates to "large" as the size of the Sebenza.

 

[Chris Reeve Knives]

Most of the details about this knife have been mentioned but here it all is in a nutshell!

The knife that James has in one of the 6 prototypes made when we changed the profile of the Sebenza back in 1995. I can't give you any details about who owned it or what value to put to the knife because we just don't know.

We had toyed with the idea of calling the large Sebenza Gakulu (which, as Deon says, means big or large in Zulu) but dropped the idea - we bounce enough names that are difficult to pronounce and remember off our customers!!

The blade of polished ATS 34 is typical of the knives we made at that time. It was about six months later that we introduced BG42 blades - it was out intention to introduce the new profile with BG42 but could not put the timing together.

Anne

 

[stjames]

blademan13, thanks for the warning, I’ll just have to risk the perils

Ralf and Dennis, yep, ho-hum.

Nimrod, thanks, I’m lucky to have it.

Deon, thanks for the info! How do you say “small”?

Anne, thanks for setting everything strait. I am very happy to have the knife in my collection.


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James Segura
San Francisco, CA

 

[Deon]

James, "small" is written "ncane" in Zulu but to explain how to say it would most probably take a page - the "nc-" is sort of a clicking sound with the tip of the tongue against the teeth - no! let me stop here otherwise it's going to go on forever - one must hear it to understand.

 

[stjames]

Thanks, Deon!