I Got MINE Today!!!!! AC Gurkha Kukri and Kardas!!!!

Yvsa

Yvsa

Joined
May 18, 1999
Messages
15,395
I guess I must be living half way right anyway as I got under the wire of 20 kardas for 20 bucks!!!!!:cool:
I wasn't sure whether I had ordered 20 kardas or $20.00 worth of kardas, but whichever way I got them before the price went up!!!!
There's no clip blades, but there are 3 of them with the little chos, read holes like the ones John Powell posted.:D
It's gonna be awhile before they get cleaned up, but as my Barbie said, "They've waited 75-100 years. They can wait a bit longer."

All in all most of them look pretty good, but there's 3 or 4 that appear pretty worthless except for a historical record. Still a dayumed good bargain.:D

We didn't see any markings on the kukri itself, WW II Model with a partial tang, but Barbie just rubbed it a little around the base of the blade with a dry kleenex.
The blade is about 3/8" at the bolster and tapers all the way to the rather thin point.
I love the shorter handle and the nice curve it has!!!! That's one of the things that draws me to the old kukris.
That shorter curved handle has a way of locking into my hand like no other does!!!!
A 75-100 year old kukri along with twenty 75-100 year old kardas for #131.95 just isn't bad in anybody's book, includes the $12.95 for shipping.:D
Now just waiting for the Traditional "Bhojpure"!!!!:D
And they got here UPS in Record Time!!!!!!!:D :cool: :D

They must have the chakmaks seperate from the kardas as there weren't any in my batch.
I might have to do some trading to see if I can latch onto a decent one from somebody.;)
 
Any stats on that Ghurkha khukri? Very interested to know the blade thickness, in particular, to see if the khuks of old were indeed thinner than the current offering from HI.
 
Don't have any old khuks, never seen one up close. Only have had contact with HI khuks and the usual junk from AC.

If HI khuks are too thick, why isn't that being corrected? Just some thoughts after handling my 18" Bura Kobra (aka. the 'lightsabre') and my 18" Bura GS (the 'sea anchor', compared to the Kobra anyway).
 
Okay. I did a really quick cleanup to get the worse part of the gunk off the old war horse and here are the specs the best I can do tonight.
Thickness of spine at bolster............. 7/16"
Thickness of spine at start of angle...... 25/64" , just a tad over 3/8"
Thickness of spine at half way to point... 5/16"
Thickness of spine at 1/2" from point..... 9/64"

Thickness of blade at approximate center between start of bend and point and as far as I can get my 0"-1" mic's on, about 1 1/16" from the edge the blade is 0.150" or about 5/32"
It's approximately the same all along the distance of what would be most of the sweet spot on and HI Kukri.
That's considerably thinner than the HI blades at that point.

The blade gently tapers to the bend and then tapers more aggresively all the way to the edge.
The kukri is 15 3/8" oal.
The blade is 11 3/8" long from center of bolster to point.
The handle is 3 3/4" without bolster
The handle is 4 1/4" including bolster and right to the edge of said bolster.

Weight is 22 ounces or 1 & 3/8 pound.

And Heavens to Murgetroid the edge is a good solid 59-60Rc over the most of it!!!!:eek: :cool: It's kind of hard to "feel" the edge at the point because it appears it's been hammered on at some point and for some reason.
I first thought it was extreme pitting, but now I'm beginning to think hammer marks as they extend up the edge almost all the length of the sweet spot towards the cho.
The same marks appear about 3" along the spine back from the point.:confused:

This isn't as thin as some of the old ones I've seen at Terry & Sandi's place other than the spine it is thinner than most of the regular HI Lineup.
Another thing about some of the old ones at Terry's is that the thick part of the kukri is at the bend and they taper both towards the point and the butt/pommel.
What little careful work I just did with the file left the old war horse just pretty dayumed sharp.:D

I'll try a scan tomorrow Dean and if it shows up half way decent I will send it to you.
 
I'm going to be real interested in your assessment of those karda blades, if you put an edge on any and try them out.

The other night I cut up some cardboard boxes and tested out one HI karda, two antiques and a karda I made with a laminated carbon steel blade from Ragweed Forge. This wasn't a very precision test, but they all seemed to loose their ability to shave after the same number of cuts.

I figured Ragnar's blade would be a standout winner, but this was not the case.

However, as you said elsewhere there may be some virtue in a blade intentionally left soft so it can be resharpened more easily.

So far I have sharpened two with a cho and one without, and the "choed" version seems harder. Maybe the "cho-less" was left softer for a reason. Regardless, criticism of that old-timer would be a bit like examining a piece of the True Cross and then speculating that you have a better looking piece of wood out in the garage.

More than likely, my favorites among the combined karda "stash" will end up being those that fit the scabbard loops the best.
 
Yvsa pix #1 L + R

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Sorry for the incomplete pix, but my scanner just isn't big enough to get the whole kukri.
I have came to the conclusion that the dings on the blade near the edge and spine are hammer marks. Why?, is the question.
As I said before the blade is excellently hardened so I'm questioning if the hammer blows were put in while the blade was at forging temperature?
There's definite "upset" of the steel along the spine especially. The hammer marks on the right side of the blade along the edge are heavier than those on the left side by the edge.
It almost appears that the edge may have been thinned or reworked after it was made.
Interesting to ponder to say the least.:)
Maybe someone more knowledgeable than myself can shed some light on this mystery?
 
Originally posted by Yvsa
Sorry for the incomplete pix, but my scanner just isn't big enough to get the whole kukri.
Click to expand...
Scan the other half too & I'll try to stitch them together.

BTW, what I can see is a pretty profile.
One of my favorites.
 
Hi Yvsa,
How about a separate scan of the handle end though?
It would help the overal picture, I reckon!

Spiral
 
Okay guys. I'm getting ready to scan right now. It'll be a few until they get to Dean.:)
 
Originally posted by cliff355
Hammer dings aside, that blade looks like it is in great shape.
Click to expand...

Cliff it is in Great Shape!!!!:D I'm very impressed with the overall quality and the excellent hardness of the blade!!!!
I was also surprised to see the range/length of hardness on the blade too. It's hardened to within about 1/2" of the point, and at 3 1/2" from the cho it starts getting a tad softer and softer gradually the closer you get to the cho.
And with the high, 59-60 Rc, hardness of the blade the area where it starts getting softer towards the cho is probably a good 57-58 Rc and I would guess no less than 55-56 at the cho itself!!!!
Amazing work done so long ago, but that doesn't surprise me really as I've seen other blades that were excellently crafted from that time period and earlier.
But it always seems like the tool's of war and defense were always at the cutting edge of technology, no pun intended.:)

quote:
Dean posted: "BTW, what I can see is a pretty profile.
One of my favorites."

Dean it is a pretty profile although the fully arched or curved is my favorite.
This kukri has the most comfortable handle than any in my possesion!!!!
A true, somewhat elongated, egg shape. Now if I can just match the handles on my two FF's to something somewhat close to this one I will be a very happy man with a pair of what I think is the prettiest kukri H.I. has ever made, with perhaps an exception with the Berk Special.
But I have never got to handle one of those.:( ;)
 
Bro, I keep thinking that khukuri may well have recieved hits from either shrapnel, or bullets, and was hammered back into shape afterwards. It also may well have been in an explosion. After all - this ones a war khukuri. The combination of depressions/odd deformation, what looks like heat discoloration, and hammer marks keep leading me that direction
 
I like the big bellyed shape. you can tell its a weapon the second you pick it up. It looks almost like mine you wonder if the same kamie made them all those years ago.Its strange holding a weapon made so long ago that the maker is dead and even the tree that the handel came from is probley long gone.the world has moved on so much in the long years between the forging and now, who knows were this blade may be in the next 100 years.like the seen in the movie Alians were the space trooper pulls out the old pump shot gun .If the kamie could see us now he would probley grin and think I did a pretty good job on those.
 
His kukri looks very much like mine any guess on the age 1850 to 1890 is what im being told just amazing!
 
Yvsa pix - composite showing whole blade

Pretty funky looking due to quick effort.

Also the 2 pix had shadows going in opposite directions.

Somehow, the proportions look wrong.

Yvsa, how close does it look?

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