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Himalayan Imports 18" Ang Khola Extreme Testing
I've been making noises about posting this for a few days now, but I just couldn't get into a review-writing mood, if you know what I mean. I'm actually glad I put it off now, because I managed to retrieve the pics I took so you'll all get the full effect. Anyway, on to the review!
I was fortunate enough to snag two Himalayan Imports 18" Ang Kholas for the price of one thanks to the incomparable Bill Martino. There was one caveat to this deal however; he wanted to see some extreme field testing, which can be pretty insane when you're talking about knives that weigh nearly 2 pounds. Naturally, I wanted a piece of this action
. I was not disappointed. I got two different models by two different kamis; a standard handle AK by Sher and a chiruwa (full tang) model with finger grooves by Kumar, Sher's brother. Sher and Kumar have very different styles, which has been a topic of discussion before on the Himalayan Imports forum. Sher is renowned for making thick, heavy, massive choppers, while Kumar is best known for inventing the lightest, quickest khukuri in HI's lineup, the Kumar Kobra. This was my first sample of Sher's work, I have seen Kumar's work before in the form of a 16.5" WWII model, my impressions of which can be seen here. Here's a breakdown of these two beauties:
Kumar's blade: I was instantly intrigued by this knife because I had never handled a chiruwa style khukuri before. The finger grooves which Kumar cut into this one were far too small for my fingers, they needed to be enlarged by about 50% in order to be comfortable for me. This has been a problem in the past as the average American has much larger hands than the average kami. Still, it wasn't too hard to enlarge them with a bastard cut half round file, and the end result is pure heaven. While I worked on the finger grooves, I filed the edges of the tang even with the handle scales. I think the scales shrank considerably after they were pinned on, because the tang was uniformly about 1/32" wider than the scales. I figured this could be a comfort issue so I took care of it before using the knife. Other than those issues, the handle is great. It really fills up my hand, much better than my other khukuris. It's especially nice in the pinky finger region, which I'll expound upon later. Below is a pic of the handle before I did any work on it. As you can see, the finger grooves are pretty small and placed too close to the bolster for comfort.
The balance of this knife is magical. Kumar is known for making very lively blades, and this is no exception, even though the design is intended primarily for chopping. I think that the chiruwa handle improves the balance immensely, keeping it from being too blade heavy. The balance is still solidly towards the blade, but it's still maneauverable in my hand. The blade is very well forged, I only noticed one little indentation towards the tip, and it had the same problem at the tip as my WWII. It was shaped oddly, the last 1/4" of the edge didn't follow the same curve as the rest of it. Here's a very crude illustration, it's exaggerated but hopefully gives you the idea.
In addition to all of that, the edge was dead dull. I tried to chop into a cardboard box and it only mashed it down. I've been getting a lot of HI's like that lately, it's disconcerting to say the least. I'd really like to see these khuks being shipped with servicable edges, it gives a bad impression to newbies and makes it harder to put a razor edge on them.
Sher's blade: True to form, Sher's blade is noticeably thicker and beefier than Kumar's. The balance is much more blade heavy, it feels very dead in my hands. The blade is immaculate though, I get the impression that Sher is much more meticulous in his forging and finish work than Kumar. The handle on his is much smaller in diameter though, and does not fit my hand nearly as well as Kumar's. The blade also was unfortunately very dull, sad to see on such a fine knife. I of course felt obliged to correct the situation immediately, and managed to put a decent edge on it with sandpaper and elbow grease. It wasn't the finest edge I've ever put on a khukuri, but it would cut much better than before.
The sheaths on both knives are about the same; servicable and much better than some I have seen, but not too flashy. They both hold their charges very securely and look to be pretty tough, not much more to say here. The karda provided with each khukuri is also very well done, they're big enough to do nearly any task that could be asked of a small knife and are well finished. The chakmas are equally large, and seem to be properly hardened as well.
Now, on to the good stuff! When I saw that Uncle Bill wanted some heavy duty testing performed, I decided to give it all I had. I decided that I would 'sacrifice' Kumar's khuk to the really rough testing; I figured if it was destroyed, I still had one khukuri, I had just now paid full price for it. I doubted I would be capable of doing it serious harm though, but I set out to try anyway.
Before I did any work with either khukuri, I put a razor edge on the Kumar blade and a so-so edge on the Sher blade. Kumar's blade was slightly less blunt to begin with, and for some reason I just had better luck sharpening it. I put a convex edge on both of them for sharpness and durability. I decided to leave Sher's blade at less than optimal sharpness to see how much it would affect the chopping ability compared to Kumar's blade.
My first test was very simple and very short; I took both blades into the woods along a path I have cleared out to ride ATVs on. There are lots of fallen trees, springy underbrush, and thick grapevines in this particular area of the forest. It made for a nice variety of material to cut with each khuk. I started off trimming back the underbrush with Sher's blade. These are what I and my family call 'prickerbushes'; they can have a thick, tough central stalk, but the ends of the plant are 5'-7' long whippy little vines with monster thorns. They're very difficult to cut because they aren't very rigid but are very tough. The Sher made Ang Khola would cut them, but it took very careful aim and a lot of effort on the springy little vines. When I switched to the Kumar Ang Khola, however, the job became much easier because it was so much sharper. It still wasn't ideal for the task, but it was much better than it's duller companion. I only cut with these for a few minutes each at this task because I didn't have much time, so handle comfort wasn't a big issue. Below is a pic of the entrance to the path, you can see the deadly 'prickerbushes' lining both sides.
Next, I started taking swings at the grapevines. These also provide a unique challenge as a cutting medium because they hang from the tops of the trees and are often 1.5"-3" in diameter. They basically shrugged off all but the best-aimed swings from my 18" Ontario machete, back before I discovered Himalayan Imports. My Gelbu Special does a fair job cutting them as well, but I've never gotten it as sharp as the Kumar Ang Khola was that day. Kumar's blade cut those grapevines like a lightsaber through butter. As long as I swung with my full strength and aimed the edge properly, it could cut 1.75" grapevines in one cut! Even 4" vines could be cut with four or five properly placed chops. Sher's blade didn't fare quite so well in this arena either, but it cut the grapevines better than the prickerbushes. Again, I'm sure this could be directly attributed to the dullness of the edge. Here's a few pics of the kind of damage that Kumar's blade inflicted:
The vine in the following pic had already been cut, making it more difficult to cut again since a badly aimed swing would just make it deflect off of the edge and swing away. I found a downward angled chopping motion to be the most effective way of cutting these vines.
At this point the mosquitos were driving me totally bonkers, so I decided to hurry and wrap up my testing for the day. I found a ~11" diameter log that had been down for a long while, but was still solid about 1/2" below the surface. I chopped into the log with 50 full force swings using both Kumar's blade and Sher's, and the results were very surprising to me. I had always read on Bladeforums that the chiruwa style khukuris transmitted more vibration while chopping than the standard models; I found the opposite to be true, greatly so. Kumar's blade chopped out a about 4" deep notch, while Sher's blade only managed a notch approximately 3" deep. Much of the difference can be attributed to the superior sharpness Kumar's blade, but a lot of the credit also goes to the handle comfort. Every one of the 50 chops I made with Kumar's blade was full force because the vibration transmitted to my hand through the handle was very slight; in fact it's the most comfortable khukuri I've ever chopped with. Sher's handle, however, vibrated so much where my pinky finger was gripping, towards the end of the handle, that I nearly dropped the khukuri on the first swing. It was excruciating. I had to choke up on the handle to prevent it from shattering my pinky finger, but my hand kept slipping backwards towards the swell at the end of the handle. I couldn't chop with it nearly as hard as with Kumar's blade, or as comfortably. I think the main reason the chiruwa handle was more comfortable was it's large diameter, especially in the lower half of the handle. I don't think it vibrated less than the standard handle; I think that because my pinky could grip the last half of the handle so much more solidly the vibrating handle didn't hit my finger so hard. My finger absorbed the vibration rather than being struck by the vibrating handle. I was very surprised to find the chiruwa handle so comfortable, as I had never wanted to try one before because I feared the uncomfortable vibration. Nothing could have been farther from the truth.
Here's a pic of the notches made in the log with each khukuri. The one on the left was made with Kumar's blade and the one on the right with Sher's.
This light workout didn't really have any effect on the edges of these two khuks; both were just as sharp coming out of the woods as they were going in. I even cut myself on Kumar's blade while cleaning it! The edge sliced right through the paper towel I was using and took a small chunk out of the top layer of skin on my index finger. I used each of their chakmas to burnish them anyway and set them aside until the next round of tests.
I've been making noises about posting this for a few days now, but I just couldn't get into a review-writing mood, if you know what I mean. I'm actually glad I put it off now, because I managed to retrieve the pics I took so you'll all get the full effect. Anyway, on to the review!
I was fortunate enough to snag two Himalayan Imports 18" Ang Kholas for the price of one thanks to the incomparable Bill Martino. There was one caveat to this deal however; he wanted to see some extreme field testing, which can be pretty insane when you're talking about knives that weigh nearly 2 pounds. Naturally, I wanted a piece of this action
. I was not disappointed. I got two different models by two different kamis; a standard handle AK by Sher and a chiruwa (full tang) model with finger grooves by Kumar, Sher's brother. Sher and Kumar have very different styles, which has been a topic of discussion before on the Himalayan Imports forum. Sher is renowned for making thick, heavy, massive choppers, while Kumar is best known for inventing the lightest, quickest khukuri in HI's lineup, the Kumar Kobra. This was my first sample of Sher's work, I have seen Kumar's work before in the form of a 16.5" WWII model, my impressions of which can be seen here. Here's a breakdown of these two beauties:Kumar's blade: I was instantly intrigued by this knife because I had never handled a chiruwa style khukuri before. The finger grooves which Kumar cut into this one were far too small for my fingers, they needed to be enlarged by about 50% in order to be comfortable for me. This has been a problem in the past as the average American has much larger hands than the average kami. Still, it wasn't too hard to enlarge them with a bastard cut half round file, and the end result is pure heaven. While I worked on the finger grooves, I filed the edges of the tang even with the handle scales. I think the scales shrank considerably after they were pinned on, because the tang was uniformly about 1/32" wider than the scales. I figured this could be a comfort issue so I took care of it before using the knife. Other than those issues, the handle is great. It really fills up my hand, much better than my other khukuris. It's especially nice in the pinky finger region, which I'll expound upon later. Below is a pic of the handle before I did any work on it. As you can see, the finger grooves are pretty small and placed too close to the bolster for comfort.
The balance of this knife is magical. Kumar is known for making very lively blades, and this is no exception, even though the design is intended primarily for chopping. I think that the chiruwa handle improves the balance immensely, keeping it from being too blade heavy. The balance is still solidly towards the blade, but it's still maneauverable in my hand. The blade is very well forged, I only noticed one little indentation towards the tip, and it had the same problem at the tip as my WWII. It was shaped oddly, the last 1/4" of the edge didn't follow the same curve as the rest of it. Here's a very crude illustration, it's exaggerated but hopefully gives you the idea.
In addition to all of that, the edge was dead dull. I tried to chop into a cardboard box and it only mashed it down. I've been getting a lot of HI's like that lately, it's disconcerting to say the least. I'd really like to see these khuks being shipped with servicable edges, it gives a bad impression to newbies and makes it harder to put a razor edge on them.
Sher's blade: True to form, Sher's blade is noticeably thicker and beefier than Kumar's. The balance is much more blade heavy, it feels very dead in my hands. The blade is immaculate though, I get the impression that Sher is much more meticulous in his forging and finish work than Kumar. The handle on his is much smaller in diameter though, and does not fit my hand nearly as well as Kumar's. The blade also was unfortunately very dull, sad to see on such a fine knife. I of course felt obliged to correct the situation immediately, and managed to put a decent edge on it with sandpaper and elbow grease. It wasn't the finest edge I've ever put on a khukuri, but it would cut much better than before.
The sheaths on both knives are about the same; servicable and much better than some I have seen, but not too flashy. They both hold their charges very securely and look to be pretty tough, not much more to say here. The karda provided with each khukuri is also very well done, they're big enough to do nearly any task that could be asked of a small knife and are well finished. The chakmas are equally large, and seem to be properly hardened as well.
Now, on to the good stuff! When I saw that Uncle Bill wanted some heavy duty testing performed, I decided to give it all I had. I decided that I would 'sacrifice' Kumar's khuk to the really rough testing; I figured if it was destroyed, I still had one khukuri, I had just now paid full price for it. I doubted I would be capable of doing it serious harm though, but I set out to try anyway.
Before I did any work with either khukuri, I put a razor edge on the Kumar blade and a so-so edge on the Sher blade. Kumar's blade was slightly less blunt to begin with, and for some reason I just had better luck sharpening it. I put a convex edge on both of them for sharpness and durability. I decided to leave Sher's blade at less than optimal sharpness to see how much it would affect the chopping ability compared to Kumar's blade.
My first test was very simple and very short; I took both blades into the woods along a path I have cleared out to ride ATVs on. There are lots of fallen trees, springy underbrush, and thick grapevines in this particular area of the forest. It made for a nice variety of material to cut with each khuk. I started off trimming back the underbrush with Sher's blade. These are what I and my family call 'prickerbushes'; they can have a thick, tough central stalk, but the ends of the plant are 5'-7' long whippy little vines with monster thorns. They're very difficult to cut because they aren't very rigid but are very tough. The Sher made Ang Khola would cut them, but it took very careful aim and a lot of effort on the springy little vines. When I switched to the Kumar Ang Khola, however, the job became much easier because it was so much sharper. It still wasn't ideal for the task, but it was much better than it's duller companion. I only cut with these for a few minutes each at this task because I didn't have much time, so handle comfort wasn't a big issue. Below is a pic of the entrance to the path, you can see the deadly 'prickerbushes' lining both sides.
Next, I started taking swings at the grapevines. These also provide a unique challenge as a cutting medium because they hang from the tops of the trees and are often 1.5"-3" in diameter. They basically shrugged off all but the best-aimed swings from my 18" Ontario machete, back before I discovered Himalayan Imports. My Gelbu Special does a fair job cutting them as well, but I've never gotten it as sharp as the Kumar Ang Khola was that day. Kumar's blade cut those grapevines like a lightsaber through butter. As long as I swung with my full strength and aimed the edge properly, it could cut 1.75" grapevines in one cut! Even 4" vines could be cut with four or five properly placed chops. Sher's blade didn't fare quite so well in this arena either, but it cut the grapevines better than the prickerbushes. Again, I'm sure this could be directly attributed to the dullness of the edge. Here's a few pics of the kind of damage that Kumar's blade inflicted:
The vine in the following pic had already been cut, making it more difficult to cut again since a badly aimed swing would just make it deflect off of the edge and swing away. I found a downward angled chopping motion to be the most effective way of cutting these vines.
At this point the mosquitos were driving me totally bonkers, so I decided to hurry and wrap up my testing for the day. I found a ~11" diameter log that had been down for a long while, but was still solid about 1/2" below the surface. I chopped into the log with 50 full force swings using both Kumar's blade and Sher's, and the results were very surprising to me. I had always read on Bladeforums that the chiruwa style khukuris transmitted more vibration while chopping than the standard models; I found the opposite to be true, greatly so. Kumar's blade chopped out a about 4" deep notch, while Sher's blade only managed a notch approximately 3" deep. Much of the difference can be attributed to the superior sharpness Kumar's blade, but a lot of the credit also goes to the handle comfort. Every one of the 50 chops I made with Kumar's blade was full force because the vibration transmitted to my hand through the handle was very slight; in fact it's the most comfortable khukuri I've ever chopped with. Sher's handle, however, vibrated so much where my pinky finger was gripping, towards the end of the handle, that I nearly dropped the khukuri on the first swing. It was excruciating. I had to choke up on the handle to prevent it from shattering my pinky finger, but my hand kept slipping backwards towards the swell at the end of the handle. I couldn't chop with it nearly as hard as with Kumar's blade, or as comfortably. I think the main reason the chiruwa handle was more comfortable was it's large diameter, especially in the lower half of the handle. I don't think it vibrated less than the standard handle; I think that because my pinky could grip the last half of the handle so much more solidly the vibrating handle didn't hit my finger so hard. My finger absorbed the vibration rather than being struck by the vibrating handle. I was very surprised to find the chiruwa handle so comfortable, as I had never wanted to try one before because I feared the uncomfortable vibration. Nothing could have been farther from the truth.
Here's a pic of the notches made in the log with each khukuri. The one on the left was made with Kumar's blade and the one on the right with Sher's.
This light workout didn't really have any effect on the edges of these two khuks; both were just as sharp coming out of the woods as they were going in. I even cut myself on Kumar's blade while cleaning it! The edge sliced right through the paper towel I was using and took a small chunk out of the top layer of skin on my index finger. I used each of their chakmas to burnish them anyway and set them aside until the next round of tests.
.
. That was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for this khuk, it's found a special place in my collection now.