I can't describe how disappointed I am

Ive recieved over 500 kukris in the post & have had them arrive hanging out of the package, soaked in solvents & generaly looking like postman Pat played football with them, & Thats ones that recieved from evry continent in the world.

Never seen anything even remotly that bad,

That looks very, very deliberate to me, whats the rest of the packing look like?

Did you sign for it?

& if so whydid you accept
something so obviosly totaled?

You must know a boxed kukri thats a right angle is trashed surely?

Spiral
 
spiraltwista said:
Did you sign for it?

& if so whydid you accept
something so obviosly totaled?

You must know a boxed kukri thats a right angle is trashed surely?
Click to expand...
I can tell you that if you've never had anything like that happen before, you're not really thinking of what you should do when you see the package; you're just anxious to rip it open and check the damage. I did this with a package a few months ago, no thought at all as to what I was doing, and luckily nothing was damaged.

I had a friend who worked at [parcel company] that used to just chuck boxes as fast and hard as he could just to get his job over with. I told him that if I ever received a damaged package that went through his company, I would make him resemble the box (nevermind that he was a lot bigger than me).
 
That was most likely deliberate. The only way I could see it being an accident is if the box was leaning and someone tripped and accidentally stepped on it. Sorry about your sword. :-(
 
hey man,
though I can't see the pic, I can tell you that a bent sword is a common malady and can be recovered.

there are numerous articles on how to correct a bent sword. as long as the blade did not take a set.

DO NOT REBEND IT OVER YOUR KNEE. straightening involves placing the blade between 2 blocks. it's slow process and requires patience.

japanese swords were meant to bend before breaking.

if in doubt, go to www.swordforum.com and ask for help. if you planned on using that sword for heavy cutting (light targets) you would have bent it eventually with a bad cut.

good luck, i'd be happy to help any way I can.

Dave from his blackberry.
 
Are you sure you didn't bend it over the postman's head for not bringing you the parcel slip? :D

Seriously though, that's bad stuff there. :thumbdn:
Hopefully something can/will be done about it, someone definitely needs to be held accountable.
 
I Once Told The Postal Service That I Would Be Willing To Pay Much More If They Really Did Their Job. Ups Is Not Much Better Unless Something Is Shipped With Adult Sig. Required, They Will Just Leave It At My Doorstep
 
gee whiz... imagine if the guy bent it over his knee with the sharp edge towards him...

coulda had a postman nicknamed stumpy!

thats really a bummer... make sure you get you money back from usps, and try to salvage the blade...
 
The first thing that springs to my my mind is 'what happened to the hardening and tempering'? A sword should be springy, not take a set, and not stay bent.

If the blade isn't broken, you can disassemble the sword, heat the blade, straighten and then get it re-hardened and tempered.

To fix the scabbard, you need to remove the throat, then make a wood or steel mandrel that fully fits the scabbard and drive it into the scabbard and then smooth the dents out with a leather mallet.

A lot of work for bad handling!

I once saw a really expensive snooker cue that was sent to a friend for repair. It was packed in a cardboard tube and was broken in two.
 
I heard some story about postal or custom peoples get hurt during their handling and checking routines and in their madness they just abuse the item inside the box to satisfy their vengence!

I don't know how true the story is.

One thing I noticed that very seldom peoples ships any sharp bladed objects with warning sign "WARNING: SHARP BLADED OBJECT - HANDLE WITH EXTRA CARE!". I guessed any shipped box might get damage and supposing it's contains is a knife then the knife tip might sticking out and the handling and chcking people might get wounded by it. They might get mad about it and purposely abuse the shipped item as a lesson to the sender without caring that the person who received it become the victim of their doing!

Just my 2 cents opinion!
 
Skyler R. said:
Not all swords are tempered, which is the case with all HI products.
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I have to disagree, all real, working, functional swords and dress swords are tempered. Admittedly, wall hangers don't need to be. As Himalayan Imports make such good hardened and tempered working kukhris, I think this sword missed hardening AND tempering. Unless the sword is sold as a decorative wall hanger, it should not bend and stay bent. If the sword is in two pieces, then it was hardened and not tempered (i.e. Brittle) of it was over tempered, (more brittle that springy). If the sword is bent in two, then it wasn't hardened or tempered.

The first thing I do when I look at a sword to buy is press the tip onto carpet and see how the blade bends and straightens. I bought a really nice hilted British Naval sword with a very plain blade. I did my test and the blade stayed bent. I got the sword half price as it was re-bladed with a piece of mild steel.

Have a read of the book 'British Military Swords' and the Wilkinson Sword proof testing aparatus. I have been to Wilkinson Sword's factory and seen the machine. It was quite awe inspiring to see the machine that every British working and dress sword is tested on.
 
There are plenty of cultures that have real swords that don't have tempering. Japanese and Chinese just to name two. They have hardened edges with soft spines, no tempering is used. Same is true with traditional kukris, they have hardened edges (via tea pot) without any tempering. British swords (and vast majority of europe) do have hardened and then tempered blades. Different cultures use what they prefer.

This sword was never tempered, like all other HI products, but that doesn't make it a wall hanger.
 
not exactly true, kukhris (and HI swords) are heated hot enough to enable the edge to be hardened where they pour the teapot onto it, the residual heat from the unquenched area tempers the hardened bit somewhat, the resultant being a hardened and somewhat tempered edge gradually getting softer back to the unquenched spine. it's quite an art to get that balance, sometimes they get it wrong and either over or under harden the sweet spot or blade tip...also why some people find that the blades get harder & keep an edge longer after you sharpen then a few times, as you break thru the skin of slightly softer steel & reach the harder stuff. all a bit closer to how the japanese coat the area to remain tough with clay, the area to harden is less coated or uncovered, the whole thing heated then quenched, the bits that were coated cool slower & remain softer but tougher. western practice is to heat the whole blank, cool the whole blank to harden the whole thing, then go back at a lesser temperature to temper the hardness to a less brittle structure. more science, less art.

even wilkinson gets it wrong, the brits in india in the 19th c. would still get bent or broken swords after combat even tho they were proofed. if you hit something in the wrong place along a sword you can overstress it - a sword has a sweet spot just like a baseball bat, hit a ball in the wrong spot on a bat & you'll feel the sting of the discordant forces, same on a sword. you should be cutting with at most the forward 1/3 of the blade, most combat cuts were done with the 1st 6 inches or so. if you start the cut further back you can either not cut at all or damage the sword. at least a bent sword can be straightened in the field & reused to save your life if needed, a broken one is more trouble to fix.....

the damaged sword appears to still be in the bent scabbard, which of course kinked and entraps the blade. what damage was done to the blade will be revealed when the scabbard is removed, if it within it's recovery angle the blade may straighten & be OK, if not it may retain the bend, any hardened edge may be cracked up into the more tempered area of the blade, or it may be in two pieces, all speculation till the day of unsheathing.....

to me, it looks like the whole thing fell or was thrown off the truck and got run over, either by the truck or a forklift with one end propped off the ground by something (probably somebody else's now defunct package) to make it worse. my dad was a postal inspector, so i am never surprised at what postal and delivery people do routinely, especially when things are slack & they get bored.
 
Out of the three Napoleans I own, none of them are differentially hardened. All are through hardened. I can't speak for any others.

More to the point, "hardened and tempered" =/= impossible to bend. Even springs take a set if you bend them too far, and swords are not springs.
 
Jeez Kas. Sorry to see that to be sure. Thats the worst damage I've ever seen to a blade.

Um. Well, haven't seen the blade, is it possible to draw it without injuring yourself???
 
I sent this well over a month ago. First the PO gave it the wrong designation, and it came back to me after 20 days, and I had to resend it again this time airmail parcel. The box was too large to go under the first designation.

Thank God I fully insured it the second time around, (the first time only for $60 as I heard more than that and the recipient would be charged for receiving a gift) but I just listed the contents as my usual "garden tool" so I have no idea what the PO will say on this end. They might argue that I listed the contents incorrectly. I didn't even think about it. Actually, I listed it as a "decorative garden sculpture" which I guess it is. Decorative certainly, and meant to hang in someone's "garden." :D Hell, I don't know. Danny sold me something and sent it to me as a "garden tool" and I've followed suit ever since. Probably stupid. (Info or comments on PO insured losses welcome.)

This makes me sick. That was one of the first 2 or 3 engraved metal scabbard napoleons, was stiff as hell and well packed in one of the PO's own boxes. There is no friggin way this should have happened and it looks deliberate to me as well. I think I feel worse than Kazeryu to tell you the truth, as this was truly a beautiful piece of work. It's clearly ruined. Best I could hope to do with a blade bent this badly is cut it off at the bend and turn it into a long knife, and rework the scabbard to match. A$$holes!

I'm sorry for the delay in getting back to you Ross, and will try and fix this as soon as possible.


Norm

P.S. Just getting home. Left work early but missed the PO by a few minutes. I'm printing out before and after color pics right now. I'll go by first thing and see what I can do.

Can you please tell me the condition of the box when you received it, and be sure to email me any pics you have of the box or other pics of the damage?

Thanks.

N.
 
Skyler R. said:
There are plenty of cultures that have real swords that don't have tempering. Japanese and Chinese just to name two. They have hardened edges with soft spines, no tempering is used. Same is true with traditional kukris, they have hardened edges (via tea pot) without any tempering. British swords (and vast majority of europe) do have hardened and then tempered blades. Different cultures use what they prefer.

This sword was never tempered, like all other HI products, but that doesn't make it a wall hanger.
Click to expand...


Not really true again I am afraid. Japanese swords are hardened and tempered in one operation. The blades are coated with multiple, thin layers of clay slip. This is then dried slowly and the edge is carefully carved away, and thinned just above this line. The blade is then heated to a very specific colour, often said to be like the setting sun, and quenched by lowering edge first into whale oil, which is also at a certain temperature. The edge hardens to become very hard, if somewhat brittle edge but the spine tempers by slow quenching to be soft, with the part in-between being hard.

The book 'The Art of the Samurai' is good at explaining this.

No idea about Chinese swords though as I have never collected them. I have Japanese, British, German, Austrian, Sudanese and Turkish.
 
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