I Love My New 15" Ang Khola Villager !!!!!!

I've been out of town for about nine nights. I was delighted to unwrap my new khukuri when I got home last evening.

I spend a lot of time in the outdoors. I hunt and trap, and I also do a bit of occasional voluntary work removing pest plants.

This morning there was a working bee arranged for pest plant removal in a local stand of native forest. The main pest plant there is 'Old Man's Beard' vine.... a type of clematis that climbs trees and can strangle them. There are also other plants like the passionfruit vine, wild blackberry, barberry and hawthorne. Naturally I slipped my khukuri in to my pack for the occasion.

The tool I use most in this patch of forest is a pruning lopper. This is good for softer vines up to maybe an inch and three-quarters thick. I will generally also carry a machete of some sort for the occasional thicker vine or tree.

Today I found a really big Old Mans Beard vine that was much too thick for the loppers. The khukuri chopped through it with ease. I was so impressed that I brought the stump home so I could take a photo of it:



My khukuri is sitting on the stump of the vine. Above are the other tools I might use...my loppers, an ex-army golok, and a home-made machete.

I have made a few primitive-style bows. I figured the khukuri might be good for roughing out the staves. So I got a well-seasoned stave of hard kanuka wood and tried using my new blade. It worked well:



My main 'justification' for buying the khukuri was that it looked like it might be a good all-purpose tool for carrying on my trap line. I can see that it will be....and I hope to get out to set a few traps next week.

Those Nepalese certainly know what they are doing when it comes to designing and making all-pupose cutting tools. It makes me wonder what other Nepalese wisdom I might benefit from. I live fairly close to the land, and I spend quite a bit of time away from the 'main grid', so I think it possible that these people could have a lot to show me.

The khukuri was fairly darn sharp on arrival. I saw a bit of a 'feather' on one part of the edge but that was easily removed with a couple of wipes from a fine pocket stone. I also tried the wee 'sharpener knife' (sorry, I cant remember the correct name for this), and I can see that this would work to restore an edge. I found that part of my blade was sharp enough to shave hair after I'd used the sharpener.

If the 'villager' models are meant to be a bit less well-finished than the standard 'shop' models of khukuri, then those shop models must be pretty darn fancy. There is absolutely nothing wrong with my villager...except maybe I might get a bit of emery paper to round off the ends of the metal butt cap on the handle. I did a lot of chopping today, and I found that the points of the butt cap caught on my palm a bit. But that is easily remedied...and, anyway, it may just be the way that I hold the tool.

I found a hawthorne tree with a trunk thickness of around 5 inches. I cut it down easily with the khukuri. Sure... a chainsaw would have been quicker...but who wants to tote a smelly, noisy chainsaw everywhere for the occasional job? Besides, some of the ground is so steep that you have to hang on to a tree with one hand while you chop with the other.

I am very pleased with my khukuri and the service I got from Himalayan Imports.

I'm now wondering what I could do with an even bigger khukuri....an 18" Ang Khola maybe....or even a longer, lighter one for tackling thinner vines and fern.

 

Darn right OldPhysics!! It just took me a while to get used to the fact that khukuris were 'bent' compared to the knives I grew up with.

But khukuris have figured in my upbringing a bit. My Dad was a soldier, and he spoke of the Ghurkas and their khukuris with apparent high regard. And although I am not sure whether I should admit to it because I don't know if the guy was a paragon of virtue, but Sir Eyre Coote of India was a relative....and I think that this 'Indian' connection may possibly have had something to do with my Dad's admiration for blades from that part of the world (although I acknowledge that Nepal is a different place altogether).

Dad had a small khukuri...but I'm guessing that it may have been a tourist version. If I come across it I must test the blade with a file to see how it measures up against my Villager.

 

So what is your #1 favorite Ad Astra???

 

Hmmmmmmm....I like the look of those Gelbu specials....

 

I agree....they are a bit habit forming. I've observed that much of my thinking in the last couple of days has been connected to my khukuri and khukuris in general. It is more of a mild obsession really.

While I don't need another khukuri, I've been giving the matter some serious thought. I think that you are right SilverFoxKnows....while an 18" would be fun to own - and very useful on occasions - it is a relatively big, heavy bit of hardware that is less likely to be carried on a serious excursion into the bush anyway. I have a lot of other stuff to carry.

I'm thinking that I'd get a lot more use from a sturdy twelve or thirteen inch blade built like an Ang Khola. The 15" Villager is excellent, but I now realize it is 'overkill' for the majority of the jobs that I need such a tool for on the trapline. So I might just see if Yangdu can help me out with something a bit smaller.

A smaller khukuri would also attract less attention from folks I might meet when trapping. I don't want to freak people out, and I don't want to have to explain what I'm doing to everybody. A 12 incher would be easier to keep out of sight. I wonder how I could best carry it 'concealed'.

Not only are these things tough and practical, they are beautiful and they have a certain honesty and authenticity about them.

 

Yep....I reckon I'll get something like yours IUKE12. I'm still very pleased to have the fifteen incher, and I'd eventually love to have something even longer as well....but the smaller one will simply be handier for most of what I do. A smaller handle would most likely be OK for me....my hands aren't huge, and the smaller handle would make the whole thing easier to carry in an unobtrusive manner.

Sams.... how do you actually use that Gelbu special for dispatching those animals? It seems that khukris aren't shaped like the ideal 'sticking' knife and I'm curious to know how easy they might be to use in this way.

Thanks.... Coote.

 

I know what you mean about taking off too much wood C.S.Graves. I have made a lot of primitive bows, and I only have a few survivors. It is very easy to reduce a nice 45 pound bow to a 25 pounder with over-enthusiastic use of a big blade. Sometimes I've gotten away with using a hatchet (nowadays it might be a khukuri) for the whole job....but it is probably better to take off the last few hundreths of an inch with a scraper or something.