Gneral Question About Kailash Khukuris

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squid8286

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Feb 23, 2023
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Are Kailash knives considered to be good quality as opposed to some of the other Nepalese-made Khukuris available? Someone on another forum mentioned these guys - himalayan-imports.com, but it looks like their web-site is down or they are out of business entirely.
 
squid8286 said:
Thank you very much.
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Is there a particular model you're looking? Just curious.

I've tried a couple from each and both have been decent. I liked the finished edges on the Kailash more but the finish on the blade tends to be a little nicer on HI, as a standard. Both have had good handles.

I currently have 2 of both still in my selection of cutting tools. Well, one of the kailash mini kukris is my son's "axe knife", but it's in my house, so we'll count, LOL.
 
I think HI are still in business- perhaps they're just having website issues. I think it would probably be big news in khukuri circles if they ceased operations.
There's a lot of makers in Nepal doing good work and everyone has their own strengths. HI make a lot of knives with large thicknesses and also ship quite cheaply within the US so they're a great option for a big beatery knife stateside.
We make our knives to order in nepal so shipping is higher. However you get to choose all your custom options and get updates as the blade is made. We tend to focus a bit more on performance and so put a lot of effort into heat treat, edge geometry, ergonomics and balance compared to other makers.
Take care,
Andrew and the team at Kailash
 
HI is still in business and they're still active here on Bladeforums and have deals posted. I have some blades from them and got two here fairly recently. Their website comes up just fine for me.

My first two blades from Kailash literally arrived today so I don't have any real use information so that remains to be seen. Out of the box though, I am very impressed and I did have a chance to put them to a couple old 2x4's and was even more impressed. I'll be posting some images soon in the "show off your knives" thread and in about a month I I'll be putting them to work and will come back with a little review.

Have a read through the Kailash section here and I recommend reading as much of the website as possible. Andrew is very responsive and a great source of information.
 
Nice! Great to hear you're happy with the blades on unboxing and a little chopping. We'd love to see a little review in future once you've put them through their paces. Not suprised by finding the 2x4 performance impressive. The mk1 in particular absolutely vaporises 2x4s.
 
Kailash Blades said:
Nice! Great to hear you're happy with the blades on unboxing and a little chopping. We'd love to see a little review in future once you've put them through their paces. Not suprised by finding the 2x4 performance impressive. The mk1 in particular absolutely vaporises 2x4s.
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2x4's are a bit of a weak test I admit but I tried my best to compare the two new ones with some of my others with the same angle and power, taking a few hits with each. I got the performance grind and well, these blades bite deep.

I'll be heading out west to a family farm where there's some brush clearing work to be done so I'll have a go at small things, thick things, green things and dead things. I'll take some notes and copious photos. Not sure about video though, unfortunately.
 
For a lot of people 2x4s are going to be what they are mostly cutting so it's a good representative performance test. Easy to benchmark between different blades and different users too. On my end I am usually chopping up australian hardwood which while a good test of durability and geometry isn't a very useful comparison for those in the northern hemisphere.

No stresses on the video- any feedback and reflection would be greatly appreciated :)
 
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Kailash Blades said:
For a lot of people 2x4s are going to be what they are mostly cutting so it's a good representative performance test. Easy to benchmark between different blades and different users too. On my end I am usually shoppnig up australian hardwood which while a good test of durability and geometry isn't a very useful comparison for those in the northern hemisphere.

No stresses on the video- any feedback and reflection would be greatly appreciated :)
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I've heard that Australian stuff is really tough. That's a review I'd like to see. We've got a decent mix of trees here. I think osage orange might be on the tougher side of what we have where I live?
 
One more fan vote for Kailash Blades. I an very pleased with my Pensioner.

HI has a good reputation and following for a reason.

Tora Blades has a checkered history, but I thoroughly enjoy the 1 Khuk I bought from them.

Just be wary of houses that state they are "the official supplier of khukuris to the xxxxx regiment...." Although it may be true, it is not always a guarantee of quality.
 
Kailash Blades said:
I think HI are still in business- perhaps they're just having website issues. I think it would probably be big news in khukuri circles if they ceased operations.
There's a lot of makers in Nepal doing good work and everyone has their own strengths. HI make a lot of knives with large thicknesses and also ship quite cheaply within the US so they're a great option for a big beatery knife stateside.
We make our knives to order in nepal so shipping is higher. However you get to choose all your custom options and get updates as the blade is made. We tend to focus a bit more on performance and so put a lot of effort into heat treat, edge geometry, ergonomics and balance compared to other makers.
Take care,
Andrew and the team at Kailash
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Andrew, I am seriously leaning towards getting one from you guys when I do decide to purchase one. I really have no plans for any heavy use with it, but when I do get one, I want it to be a quality one, and from what limited research I have done, yours are very much that. I just think kukris are cool! That is why I want one; not because I have any deep knowledge of them, or any specific application for one. Basically, I just want one! Thank you for your responses here.
 
Andrew, I am thinking seriously about a Panawal with an 11" blade, because if I am understanding correctly, it is a full tang, where the rest of the ones you guys make are not, correct? I am familiar with the "rat tail" type of tang, much like a WWII Ka-Bar. Is that what type of tang the other knives that you make have? And again, if I am understanding correctly, the Panawal tang should extend the entire width of the handle. Like I said, the knife may never see any hard use, but I want a strong one just in case it ever does!
 
squid8286 said:
Andrew, I am thinking seriously about a Panawal with an 11" blade, because if I am understanding correctly, it is a full tang, where the rest of the ones you guys make are not, correct? I am familiar with the "rat tail" type of tang, much like a WWII Ka-Bar. Is that what type of tang the other knives that you make have? And again, if I am understanding correctly, the Panawal tang should extend the entire width of the handle. Like I said, the knife may never see any hard use, but I want a strong one just in case it ever does!
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I'll just throw in my $0.02:

One thing you'll learn about Kailash is that there are lots of options. You can get full tang in most other blades as an option in the drop down menus on the website just in case you're limiting yourself to the Panawal for having a full tang. Even if an option isn't in the drop down, people have reached out to them for special orders but I'll let Andrew speak more on that.

What are you considering as "hard use"?
 
Also full tangs are nice but the Nepalese have been using their traditional partial tang knives hard for a long long time
 
Bill_Melater said:
I've heard that Australian stuff is really tough. That's a review I'd like to see. We've got a decent mix of trees here. I think osage orange might be on the tougher side of what we have where I live?
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We definitely have some super hard woods here but I think that the impression comes less from all the wood here all being super hard but more that there's just so little softwood around to balance it out. Straight grained wood is also not common so it can be hard to split a lot of our twisted and gnarled wood even if it's not that hard. In summation a high average difficulty of processing.
squid8286 said:
Andrew, I am seriously leaning towards getting one from you guys when I do decide to purchase one. I really have no plans for any heavy use with it, but when I do get one, I want it to be a quality one, and from what limited research I have done, yours are very much that. I just think kukris are cool! That is why I want one; not because I have any deep knowledge of them, or any specific application for one. Basically, I just want one! Thank you for your responses here.
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Nothing wrong with just wanting a khukuri because they're interesting. It can make your job of deciding what to get easier too- you can just look at what's cool and go with that rather than being constrained by a specific use case.
squid8286 said:
Andrew, I am thinking seriously about a Panawal with an 11" blade, because if I am understanding correctly, it is a full tang, where the rest of the ones you guys make are not, correct? I am familiar with the "rat tail" type of tang, much like a WWII Ka-Bar. Is that what type of tang the other knives that you make have? And again, if I am understanding correctly, the Panawal tang should extend the entire width of the handle. Like I said, the knife may never see any hard use, but I want a strong one just in case it ever does!
Click to expand...

We make some other traditional blades with full tangs- notable the angkhola ek, dui and tin chirra. As said though we can easily do a full tang on any knife at customer request. The panawal is full tang and when we say full tang it means it covers the entire handle profile, with the scales sitting on top. You can see the tang the whole way around.
The rat tail tangs that we make are of a similar general style to the kabar and from the outside of the handle they would look the same. However the shaping is different in some key ways that helps our tangs be a lot tougher. Our rat tail tangs have more in common with the tang on a historical longsword than a ka bar in some ways.

Full tang vs rat tail is a topic of heated debate and there are some very varied and passionately held views on either side.
In terms of durability our rat tail tang blades have proven to be just as tough as full tang blades for any chopping tasks. Full tangs are more durable in prying tasks and also if striking the handle when batoning.
At the same time though full tangs add a fair chunk of weight to the back of the handle which changes the feeling in hand of a khukuri quite a bit. This is less noticeable on longer and heavier blades and more notable on shorter and lighter blades (11" and below).
As you don't have any specific application in mind then the durability or balance difference isn't a big deal either way.
Regardless of which tang style you choose, you can get a great knife :)
 
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