I got my HIKK.

Joined
Nov 30, 1999
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I got my HI Kenpo Khukuri yesterday. This was a knife designed by a forumite who provided a model to Uncle Bill. I think of it as a cross between a bowie knife and a khuk. Mine has beautiful horn handles, nice grey streaks in it. This is my first full tang HI knife and I have no doubts as to the sturdiness of its contruction. The blade is also fullered, with a spine up the center of it. You could probably lever open safes with this thing and not have it bend. The edge is nice and hard. I have an old 'test' knife that I use to test edge hardness with. I moderately whack the edges together and see what the damage is. Since I always use this 'test' knife I can compare the results between the different edges I am testing. The 'test' knife was heavily impacted, folded and split. The HIKK was barely touched, you had to look close to see the impact points. The balance of the knife is good. If I put my finger in the finger grove, I get a sort of a 'choking up' on the blade feel which offers a lot of control over the blade for slicing and light chopping. It feels a lot like a bowie. The handle is long enough so that I can fit my whole hand around it below the finger groove comfortably. This shifts the center of balance forward so it handles more like a khukuri. In chopping tests into a partially seasoned log, I don't know what kind of wood, it performed very similarly to my BAS. That was using the below the finger grove grip. Using my finger in the groove grip gave me finer control and still had respectable chopping strength. The back edge is sharpened half way down and then gets rounded. I like this as it has much less of a belly than the front and makes some kinds of cutting easier. The dull part should be good for breaking up things I don't want to risk damaging the edge with. The triangular lanyard extension out of the pommel will by good for punching holes in things. Overall I love it. My wife even admired it. The design is a bit unorthadox, but very functional and comfortable to use. I am not sure which of you designed it, but my hat is off to you. The execution of it's make is first rate by the kami who uses the lamp mark. Who is that anyway? I should know by know but I am horrible with names. Thanks to the designer, the kami and Uncle Bill.
 
And thanks for good field report, Bob.

That's the kami with no name -- three guys who work part time as a team and they are doing very good work as your HIKK demonstrates.
 
Glad you're enjoying it. The design was a substantially enlarged version of a knife a friend of mine has. I recently took mine to Las Vegas where I had a chance to show it to Gil Hibben. He was impressed with the workmanship and the overall size. It definitely is an attention getter.

Greg Z. 7/6/01
 
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