Gift for a Teenage Girl

Hondo.3

Hondo.3

Joined
Oct 28, 2005
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The girl in question is my nineteen-year-old sister. She is a university student studying geography. She enjoys camping, hiking, and the outdoors. Next semester she will be taking some field classes that will have her outside for considerable amounts of time.

The gift in question was a razor sharp 10" Kumar Karda with a carved horn handle. I had Vadim make a beautiful sheath for it, complete with her initials tooled into the back.

Her reaction, according to my dad, was one of surprise. She thought it was enormous, like something the Crocodile Dundee would have carried. He didn't say that she was disappointed, but I could read between the lines.

Crappy, eh?
 
what other knives does she own, if any? doesn't seem like a knife enthusiast, which i'm guessing you would have already known. how similar are her initials to your own?
 
Give her a chance to get used to the knife. She'll come to appreciate it after a while.
 
Magnum22 said:
what other knives does she own, if any? doesn't seem like a knife enthusiast, which i'm guessing you would have already known. how similar are her initials to your own?
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She may or may not have a SAK knock-off. I don't think she actually has a real knife of her own. I realise that she isn't a knife enthusiast. Still, she does love gear for the outdoors. I thought that she would be excited about a high-quality personalised item.

Her name is Amanda. My ounger brother's name is Andrew. To avoid confusion, I had Vadim put down "ACEC" to include her middle and last names.

I'm guilty here. I imposed my beliefs on another. I made the classic mistake of giving someone a gift that I would have liked to receive myself. I have no one to blame for my shortsighedness.
 
most girls aren't estatic about receiving knives. don't bash yourself up. I think she may have appreciated a folder or a binoculars more.
 
It takes some people a while to get used to larger knives, by just about any non HIKV infected persons standards 10" is a big knife. The first khuk I got was a 12" AK and it seemed pretty massive at the time, now whenever I take it out it seems like a cute little khuk. My girlfreind didn't like using my larger knives at first but now she swears by that 12" AK. Just let that Kumar Karda come in handy in the bush a few times and she'll come around.
 
Hondo.3 said:
I'm guilty here. I imposed my beliefs on another. I made the classic mistake of giving someone a gift that I would have liked to receive myself. I have no one to blame for my shortsighedness.
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I'm a habitual offender, myself. :)

(Sometimes, the gift ended up with me anyway, so at least one person was happy.)

Eric
 
That sounds like a lovely gift, considering her interests. As others have said, I'm sure she'll appreciate it more once she uses it a few times. My own interest in sharp shiny objects began when my older brother bought me my first knife, so who knows? You may have created a monster. :)
 
Maybe a 'girlified' 15" Sirupati would have gone over better... but yeah, Hondo pretty well said it. Hard to avoid judging others by ourselves, even when we know better.
I usually go with the old standby's-- shoes and/or chocolate. What woman ever really has enough shoes? Imelda Marcos, maybe.
 
should of got her a miss-a-kit swiss army knife :p
i got one for my fiance... fun knife :D :thumbup:

when i hit about 30+ khukuris in my collection thats when veda started to show interest in buying one for herself... she ended up with a baby bdc as her first purchase... HIKV hasnt kicked in yet for her as she is to focused on building her super computer :grumpy:

owell... give it time hondo im sure she will learn to appreciate what that little kumar karda can do :thumbup:
 
Thank you for the words of encouragement. I hope she does indeed come around one day. At the very least, I hope she gets some admiring comments from her classmates.
 
Yes, she might.
Don't be hard on yourself and everyone; when you use a word like 'crappy', it is a tough one on her or you.

I think what you did was Awesome and wonderful. Even if she never likes a knife, she will one day realize the art of it, the handmade uniqueness, and the personal love from you.
Yes, she will. Young people, like me/as I was, anyway, are narrowly focused. There will come a time when that is in a display hutch or in a drawer, and prized.

And well, if it's not, we put out what we do because of who we are, and are not responsible for what others do.

Hey man, if all this sounds like new age gobbledy gook, slap my hand and lets chop a pine tree down with a couple 18" khuks.

>>>>>>>>>

I gave my neice, with Yangdu's help, a beautiful Crow knfe of 15" . She loves it. Her parents are less than thrilled. Her parents are not enamored of this thing. Her parents are actually cold towards this thing.Her parents are down right mean to this thing!!! But the kid likes it, knows it's personal and understands the thought.

IN a werid juxaposition, I can't give one to her older brother because he might not 'get it', and would probably use it for a crow bar, break the tip off, and then sell the remainder for a line of coke.



munk
 
She might grow into it yet. A 10" Kumar Karda has only what, a 5-6" blade. Next time give her a good 8" chef's knife for the kitchen, and she'll see the Karda in a new perspective when she thinks about what to take on a camping trip.

I'd love to give one of my nephews a khuk - but it truly wouldn't be well received by the rest of his household. He may yet come live with us, though, when he goes to university... there's hope.

t.
 
10'' is a lot of knife for a girl. I bought a 6'' Kagas katne as an EDC a while back, and I'm still trying to think of a way to make it work. None of my purses are big enough, so it's in my overnight bag for now. It looks like it's going to take custom leather to get it on my person.

The bright side is your sister is likely to pack her karda when she's in the sticks. The joy of receiving such a gift will come to her all at once when she actually needs a good knife out there.
 
Hope.
I know Hondo3 must have felt disapointment, but he did a heart-felt thing and that counts in this universe, though I don't know how to add it up without Bruise around.

munk
 
Seconded TomFetter's kitchen knife idea. I forced a full size chef and bread knife on Mrs. Z a couple years ago, and she still thanks me every other week. She loves the bilton we keep in the kitchen too.
 
Hondo.3 said:
Thank you for the words of encouragement. I hope she does indeed come around one day. At the very least, I hope she gets some admiring comments from her classmates.
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Sometimes it takes a positive comment from an unbiased source/peer to trigger a change in perspective on the part of the giftee - something along the lines of: Peer - "Wow, that's a nice knife you've got there. Where did you get it?" Giftee (smiles) - "Well, uh, thanks. My brother gave it to me."

(One time we got one of our boys a pair of shoes that he immediately dismissed as 'uncool.' Then, after one of his buddies said he wanted a pair, the shoes suddenly took on new status.)

Like Munk said, it was a gift from the heart and therein lies its value.

Eric
 
I think you did good, Hondo:) She'll grow to appreciate it either through use or through time. I think that's a great blade you got her. Not so big that it will put itself out of the lighter tasks, not so small that it will fail at bigger/emergency tasks. The leather sheath is the gravy. That in and of itself makes it a great heartfelt gift. Nothin says "I love you" like the skin off a cow's @$$:D It's a joke, but custom leather really does personalize the gift.

Jake
 
A lot of thought went into that gift ... and a KK isn't a vicious-looking knife anyways, it's pure utility. :confused: No sawteeth or deadly point...

Don't feel bad. Day *will come* she'll appreciate it.


Mike
 
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