Historical kukri info

E

elmbow

Joined
Feb 17, 2003
Messages
87
Hope this is an appropriate place for this, I couldn't find a "kukhri" sub forum, so here goes.
My father in law served three years in the Burma India China campaign. He was a base Executive officer underneath the command of a British officer so I am not sure if he was on a Brit air base or if they were what we call Joint Operations bases today. That is relevant only in that he became very close with the British commander and they stayed in touch in the post war years. He was gifted some beautiful things from his British friend, tapestries, ivory carvings, etc. which brings me to this kukhuri. I do not know if it was a gift from his commander or if my father in law purchased it locally, or perhaps was gifted it by a local WOG (worthy oriental gentleman, not a derogatory term btw). Regardless, it came home with him from the war in 1945. I have surmised that it is a civilian type kukhuri and that is about it. Can anyone give me some additional details on this kukhuri?
Area of manufacture? Blade style? ceremonial use? decorative? quality of blade and heat treat? Type of bone in the handles?
I will welcome any discussion of this heirloom.

How would one go about having a nice leather sheath made for this blade?
 

Attachments

  • HPIM0184.jpg
    HPIM0184.jpg
    101.6 KB · Views: 98
  • HPIM0183.jpg
    HPIM0183.jpg
    102.8 KB · Views: 60
Wow is that ivory tusk? It looks to be in remarkable condition considering its age. Some of the folks here in the forum may also have some good advice regarding preserving your kukri. Thank you for sharing, what a wonderful heirloom!
 
Mateos said:
Wow is that ivory tusk? It looks to be in remarkable condition considering its age. Some of the folks here in the forum may also have some good advice regarding preserving your kukri. Thank you for sharing, what a wonderful heirloom!
Click to expand...

That would be amazing if it were ivory, (assuming the Feds don't confiscate it), but from what I have read it looks to be bone, the pits, and texture. Ivory should be very smooth.
 
Hi, beautiful knife, check in the general knife discussion, I think I saw a thread about what ivory is and isn;t allowed, I think it is if it was made before a certain time and your kukri certainly was. Preserve it to pass on as an heirloom
 
You might try posting on the following sites:

http://www.ikrhs.com/forums/index.php

http://www.swordforum.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?137-The-Antique-Kukri-Forum

Likely "Spiral" and some other more knowledgeable scholars will be able to help you. We are definitely Khukri freaks here and some of these great scholars frequent this site as well but the folks on these sites are serious Khukri history nuts and will no doubt give you the answers you want. Sincere thanks for posting here as well because we love all things Khukri! Thats a beautiful piece! Cant wait to see what they say!
 
I'd guess bone, perhaps camel. I have several ivory items and they appear quite different. They are not porous nor show imperfections like bone. They also have a grain pattern much like the finest of woods. That said, mine are not as old so I could definitely be wrong.
 
Ivory would be cool of course but I also don't think that's Ivory. It really wouldn't be practical for a working khukri handle.
Brittle although it might work. Horn seems to hold up well. Being solid it might have a better chance of not cracking than say pistol grips where it isn't as thick.

My guess is bone or antler.

That as pretty and fancy as it is might be a ceremonial type blade too. I too am curious what the experts have to say about it.
 
a well known auction house in NYC recently held an auction which included a number of early firearms, knives and swords that had ivory grips and/or decorations. some many hundreds of years old. some PC touchy-feely bright spark in charge at the auction house decided he needed to save some elephants, removed all the ivory/bone/tooth/tusk/antler from all the millions of dollars worth of items before shipping to the new owners and destroyed it. the UK border force here assisted in this in spite of the ivory being antique and technically exempt in spite of it being obviously ancient. the paperwork was wrong. i gather that just because it was attached to a 15c weapon of mass destruction doesn't mean the ivory was that old and needs a certificate of authenticity from the original manufacturer. never underestimate the perfidy of a animal rights true believer doing his socialist duty. after all, people who, like us, collect these death dealing items are obviously sociopaths. i gather it is OK for the US federal agencies to break into your homes and seize any suspected ivory items without due process, your constitutional rights are superceded by international treaties. i suspect if a certain female gets into power in the USA, she will supecede your rights to own arms in similar fashion, especially after loading the supreme court with socially aware democrats, all to protect you from yourselves.

ref. & more info/photos of govt. vandalism.
 
Thanks for the links everyone, I will follow up if I get some better insights to its origins.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top