how long does it take

W

waterhouse

Joined
Nov 15, 2005
Messages
88
Just curious . . .

When looking at the deals of the day, it seems that there are a lot of blades produced by a fairly small number of kamis. How long does it take, on average, for a kami to make a khukuri? Recently some of them have scrimshaw elk handles, which seems as though it would add a bunch of time to the process. Do those guys ever sleep?
 
I think i remember Uncle Bill saying that as well. I think the advent of "modern" technology has greatly decreased the time it takes to make a khuk the traditional way with primative methods. Grinder, drills, etc have cut down amount of time it takes to produce the blades. Since the shop is kind of run like a hand-made production line (if that makes sense) it is pretty efficent at cranking wonderful blades pretty consistantly:)

Jake
 
I was wondering the same thing. We have had 9 DOTD so far in January. That is only 18 days along so far. Bura has had 38 blades for sale in those 9 DOTDs. He must be cranking them out. Just given those he is doing 4.2 per day.
 
Over time it seems to me that the number of blades is going up by certain makers while the number of kami marks is going down?

I believe that the Bura mark maybe means that they are made under the supervision of Bura??

Something I would like to see speaking of khuk making is next time Yangdu goes over or something is a pictorial of how they make a handle from start to finish. What tools, how they start, etc. I would especially like to see how they do the flare at the end. I find that part hard to do and I'm sure they have some tricks that would help.:thumbup:
 
eswartz said:
I was wondering the same thing. We have had 9 DOTD so far in January. That is only 18 days along so far. Bura has had 38 blades for sale in those 9 DOTDs. He must be cranking them out. Just given those he is doing 4.2 per day.
Click to expand...

Yeah...I have noticed that Bura is really working his tail off lately. He has probably had to work hard to keep the shop going, what with Kumar sick. Does Bura have several apprentice helpers? If he does, that may account for his high output.

Jeff
 
This troubles me some. A little bit of the draw for me was being HAND made by a Specifc craftsman. Factory type production of Khuks with a makers name hold less appeal to me.

I am sure this is better for HI and the Kamis but.....there goes the romance.
 
I wouldn't worry about it, BigJim. I believe that many, and DannyinJapan can probably varify this better, Japanese master sword smiths have helpers hammering out the steel (with pneumatic hammers no less). The sword smith tells them where to hit and how hard with a series of taps on the anvil. We have to keep in mind that Bura is the "Old man" of the shop. He's already had a stroke a few years back. He seems to be chugging along just fine, but a stroke of any kind will take the wind out of your sails to some degree. I believe that most of HI's blades are forged or supervised by one of the great kamis, but the little chakmas or kardas are made by future up and comers;) I would think that Kumar and Sher and some of the younger guys make the khuk all the way through where as Bura probably has a couple of strong lads rough out the shape to his liking, then he takes over for the final shape and the tea kettle quelch.


Jake
 
guys...I have this all on video and have been trying to get it distributed somehow...

It's in VCD format and needs some editing/compositing.

If anybody here has the right equipment and wants to drop me a line, feel free!

Ideally, the output format would be streaming video that we could put on the internet. If we can't get that, then an internet-friendly file format (.wmv or .mov) would be ok.

Any takers?

I have 3 CDs of video.
 
Oops, my math failed me as I was heading out to lunch. That would be 2.1 knives per day for Bura. I was only counting the DOTD not the total days of the month so far. 38 knifes in 18 days.
 
Daniel Koster said:
guys...I have this all on video and have been trying to get it distributed somehow...

It's in VCD format and needs some editing/compositing.

If anybody here has the right equipment and wants to drop me a line, feel free!

Ideally, the output format would be streaming video that we could put on the internet. If we can't get that, then an internet-friendly file format (.wmv or .mov) would be ok.

Any takers?

I have 3 CDs of video.
Click to expand...

I have some video conversion software... Where could I download the vcds from you? And how much editing is needed???
 
bigjim said:
This troubles me some. A little bit of the draw for me was being HAND made by a Specifc craftsman. Factory type production of Khuks with a makers name hold less appeal to me.

I am sure this is better for HI and the Kamis but.....there goes the romance.
Click to expand...


Guys, ever see anybody forge a big blade like that? It ain't a one man show, it's a team effort. One guy swings the big hammer, and one guy holds the hot steel on the anvil and decides where the hammer blows should fall. That means at least two, sometimes more, people are involved in the processes of forging a khuk's blade. Bura is very persnickety about his apprentices, and won't take one on unless the fellow's already got something like twenty years of hammering steel under his belt. Another thing Bura is persnickety about is tempering, and I guarantee you if he doesn't do every one himself, he probably only trusts his best apprentice and right hand man to get that job done.

Does it matter to me that Bura himself probably didn't personally make the blade from start to finish? Absolutely not. If I see Bura's crescent moon maker's mark, I know that blade was made under his direct supervision, to his standards, by people he himself has carefully trained, otherwise it would not be permitted to bear his personal mark. One day Bura will be no more, but the knowledge and skills that were once handed down to Bura by his master kami, will continue on in the hearts, minds, and hands, of those who now call him master kami. There is comfort in the knowledge of that continuity.

Given the above explanation, I feel it's safe to say, a blade bearing the crescent moon maker's mark is a genuine Bura blade, period, dot.

Sarge
 
the editing is mostly cut-n-paste...and equalizing the sound.

It's probably a gigabyte of video...(can't remember)...so, I won't be emailing it...it will have to go snail mail. I'd like to only have to do this once...so I'll need some assurance that it will be done right. Not trying to be a pain...nor am I inferring anything...just be prepare to be haggled by me. :D

Shoot me an email if interested.
 
I agree with Sarge...and after all...*someone* taught Bura. Ideally, the student *will* surpass the Master. Who knows? Perhaps the blades we admire most are the result of one particularly talented up and coming superstar kami.

One day, we may be saying "Dang! I wish I knew which of my Bura khukuris was actually done by the Master Kami Rudolph while he was Bura's apprentice."

I will admit that I felt a bit the same until I *met* the master craftsman that made one of my favorite blades under another man's mark. The well known name does indeed do great work, is well known and highly respected for his personal work and has trained his people well, but this one particular knife spoke for itself and said "A Master made me".

It just wasn't the particular Master I thought it was.

I am now very pleased with either man's work...I win overall.
 
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