- Joined
- Sep 30, 2005
- Messages
- 580
This posting is not designed to put any one manufacturer's products against any others, but rather only to share my buying experience of one particular brand of knife.
I have been in the process of starting up a personal khukuri knife collection. This initial collecting process has me currently focused on buying knives manufactured by the Khukuri House company of Nepal. I currently own 7 khukuri knives manufactured by this firm. More products made by this firm have passed through my hands, but some of them were simply not up to my visual standards, and were therefore returned or otherwise disposed of. My collection is focused on buying "real" khukuri knives, but even so, my specimens are all slated for display purposes only.
These KH knives that I currently own have come from 4 different KH stateside vendors. One can order directly from KH in Nepal, and the product prices are the lowest by using that method, but then the shipping and handling costs from Nepal will usually add enough to the overall price to make it "more" costly than just buying from a stateside vendor. There is also the problem of the return shipping rates if one has a problem with a knife coming directly from Nepal. For these reasons, I prefer the stateside vendor method for ordering KH produced knives.
I have only kept the KH knives that have met my minimum visual quality standards, but one KH product vendor sticks out as the prime choice for purchasing these KH knives.
I recently ordered a Khukuri House knife from a gentleman named John McCurdy.
I had contacted him with some interest in his KH products, and he replied by telling me that he had read some of my online visual knife reviews. He told me that he was a bit shocked that I had run into some of the issues that I mentioned about the knives from the other KH vendors.
He promised me that these issues were not a problem with the knives that he was importing from Khukuri House of Nepal. The thing is, others had said the same exact thing to me, only for me to feel let down when I received my order(s) from them. This is why I had to dispose or return some of the other KH knives that I had received. John and I had some email discussions, and I left it at him being a possible future vendor for me on KH knives. He in return told me that I would not be disappointed if I did decide to place an order with him. He told me that when he places his orders from KH, he makes it a point to stress the importance of the overall quality of the knives.
I recently decided to order a knife from him, a Khukuri House Nepalese Police model.
This is my experience with this order:
The package was sent out to me via "Priority Mail", and was sent out the very next day after he received my funds.
The packing was carefully done, product arriving perfectly safe.
Inside were the following contents:
*Khukuri House branded Nepalese lokta wrapping paper.
*The khukuri knife, the karda and chakmak accessory knives, and the scabbard.
*A video in VCD format showing the techniques and tools used by the Khukuri House for producing their knives.
*A KH description card for this particular knife.
*A KH company pamphlet, which includes a photo section showing many of their product offerings.
Visually, the knife simply met every single expectation I had been told by John to expect.
The knife had zero rust, no minor freckling, no rust anywhere on it's scabbard rivets or knife blade(s).
This khukuri has no blade or handle fractures.
The leather/wood scabbard was nicely done, and is a perfect fit in size and appearance to the knife itself.
The cho/kaudi area of the knife was very cleanly done and nicely shaped. This kaudi/cho area has been an area where some of the other KH knives had hairline fractures in them, but this one definitely had no fractures whatsoever, and was about as close to perfect as I imagine it can be.
John differenciates his knives by having KH engrave each khukuri with the marking of the bladesmith responsible for the blade's forging. This mark is placed on the right side of the blade. It's very nicely done, and being that it's in Nepalese and all, makes it very appealing looking to me (IMO). Since I don't read Nepalese, for all I know it could read something like "you dumb american fool"! But, whatever it does read, it's not overly done and adds a bit of interest to what normally would be a sterile blade.
Anyhow, this person came through for me with what is now my favorite KH knife specimen.
His contact info:
mccurdy12@juno.com
The free video he sends along with his knives looks as if it had been initially filmed for promotion purposes for the now out of business firm, "Gurkha House". Gurkha House used to be a U.S. company that sold khukuri knives from Nepal, their suppler being the "Khukuri House". Though the video may have been filmed exclusively for the Gurkha House, the message it shares is just as valid as when the Gurkha House was still operating and distributing it. In the video one will see the two founding fathers of the Khukuri House (Lalit and TB), as well as their showcasing the tools and methods used to manufacture the KH knives.
Photo showing the knife and what it came with:
http://img463.imageshack.us/img463/140/dscn05718te.jpg
Photo showing writing on blade:
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/1627/dscn05882di.jpg
I have been in the process of starting up a personal khukuri knife collection. This initial collecting process has me currently focused on buying knives manufactured by the Khukuri House company of Nepal. I currently own 7 khukuri knives manufactured by this firm. More products made by this firm have passed through my hands, but some of them were simply not up to my visual standards, and were therefore returned or otherwise disposed of. My collection is focused on buying "real" khukuri knives, but even so, my specimens are all slated for display purposes only.
These KH knives that I currently own have come from 4 different KH stateside vendors. One can order directly from KH in Nepal, and the product prices are the lowest by using that method, but then the shipping and handling costs from Nepal will usually add enough to the overall price to make it "more" costly than just buying from a stateside vendor. There is also the problem of the return shipping rates if one has a problem with a knife coming directly from Nepal. For these reasons, I prefer the stateside vendor method for ordering KH produced knives.
I have only kept the KH knives that have met my minimum visual quality standards, but one KH product vendor sticks out as the prime choice for purchasing these KH knives.
I recently ordered a Khukuri House knife from a gentleman named John McCurdy.
I had contacted him with some interest in his KH products, and he replied by telling me that he had read some of my online visual knife reviews. He told me that he was a bit shocked that I had run into some of the issues that I mentioned about the knives from the other KH vendors.
He promised me that these issues were not a problem with the knives that he was importing from Khukuri House of Nepal. The thing is, others had said the same exact thing to me, only for me to feel let down when I received my order(s) from them. This is why I had to dispose or return some of the other KH knives that I had received. John and I had some email discussions, and I left it at him being a possible future vendor for me on KH knives. He in return told me that I would not be disappointed if I did decide to place an order with him. He told me that when he places his orders from KH, he makes it a point to stress the importance of the overall quality of the knives.
I recently decided to order a knife from him, a Khukuri House Nepalese Police model.
This is my experience with this order:
The package was sent out to me via "Priority Mail", and was sent out the very next day after he received my funds.
The packing was carefully done, product arriving perfectly safe.
Inside were the following contents:
*Khukuri House branded Nepalese lokta wrapping paper.
*The khukuri knife, the karda and chakmak accessory knives, and the scabbard.
*A video in VCD format showing the techniques and tools used by the Khukuri House for producing their knives.
*A KH description card for this particular knife.
*A KH company pamphlet, which includes a photo section showing many of their product offerings.
Visually, the knife simply met every single expectation I had been told by John to expect.
The knife had zero rust, no minor freckling, no rust anywhere on it's scabbard rivets or knife blade(s).
This khukuri has no blade or handle fractures.
The leather/wood scabbard was nicely done, and is a perfect fit in size and appearance to the knife itself.
The cho/kaudi area of the knife was very cleanly done and nicely shaped. This kaudi/cho area has been an area where some of the other KH knives had hairline fractures in them, but this one definitely had no fractures whatsoever, and was about as close to perfect as I imagine it can be.
John differenciates his knives by having KH engrave each khukuri with the marking of the bladesmith responsible for the blade's forging. This mark is placed on the right side of the blade. It's very nicely done, and being that it's in Nepalese and all, makes it very appealing looking to me (IMO). Since I don't read Nepalese, for all I know it could read something like "you dumb american fool"! But, whatever it does read, it's not overly done and adds a bit of interest to what normally would be a sterile blade.
Anyhow, this person came through for me with what is now my favorite KH knife specimen.
His contact info:
mccurdy12@juno.com
The free video he sends along with his knives looks as if it had been initially filmed for promotion purposes for the now out of business firm, "Gurkha House". Gurkha House used to be a U.S. company that sold khukuri knives from Nepal, their suppler being the "Khukuri House". Though the video may have been filmed exclusively for the Gurkha House, the message it shares is just as valid as when the Gurkha House was still operating and distributing it. In the video one will see the two founding fathers of the Khukuri House (Lalit and TB), as well as their showcasing the tools and methods used to manufacture the KH knives.
Photo showing the knife and what it came with:
http://img463.imageshack.us/img463/140/dscn05718te.jpg
Photo showing writing on blade:
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/1627/dscn05882di.jpg
