I told you so!

You can get a good idea how hard a blade is with just a few swipes with a file or sharpening stone. You ought to test the spine as well as the edge but if it's polished that'll leave a mark ... I dunno. Personally I'd rather buy a khukuri with a scratched-up spine than one with too hard a spine that breaks, but some customers might look at it as a blemish....

Mad Dog McClung puts every knife he makes through some real testing before he lets it out of his shop, including chinups. A lot of other bladesmiths test every blade, too. Especially with differentially tempered blades I think it's important to test every blade even if you make them all yourself, and if you're buying from a dealer who gets them from a variety of makers....

I would suggest keeping the unconditional guarantee and testing every knife yourself. See my post on the Craftsman "lifetime of #&%@" guarantee -- a guarantee is essential but it isn't enough. Here's a wormhole to that thread:
http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum26/HTML/000055.html

-Cougar Allen :{)
 
Cougar, I still say you should get a Craftsman Wrench knife(or is it wench knife).

Sometimes testing is not enough as Cliif has already proven twice. But it is better than nothing.
 
Pretty good advice, Cougar, but if testing indicates certain limitations should one go ahead and offer an uncondtional guarantee or a guarantee which is within the limits of the ability of the knife?

Uncle Bill

[This message has been edited by Bill Martino (edited 04 April 1999).]
 
Hi Craig

Thats a tough one: are the khukuri's worth what we paid for them?

I think the one I got was worth the $42 I paid for it. Let me try to explain why. The blade is superiour to my CS LTC which I think now sells for about 80 $US (I'm Canadian). Your khukuri has better edge retention and chops better. It will stand up to more prying than my old Ka-bar (35 $US?). The handle leaves a lot to be desired but for light work it might not have been damaged. By light work I mean relatively soft wood that has a lot of give.

Will it stand up to what I use my khukuri's for, probably not for many more outings.

My kitchen experience is limited with khukuri's (need to be cleaned and oiled too much). It will cut flesh (beef) very well. The curved handle allows me to cut without getting my knife hand too messy. Also, good for chopping vegtables such as cabbage. I have not tried your knife on frozen food but I use the back of Bill's knives often to separate frozen food. Cover the food and smash.

However you asked so, sorry Bill and Craig, but in the kitchen the CS Gurkha outperforms your knives. The flat ground blade allows me to get my fingers closed to the cutting edge to guide the blade down... better control. The sabre-ground khukuri's are just too thick near the edge. The wider blade allows more vegatable to be scraped from the chopping board into the pot or pan. I'll let you know how they do on bone when I do spare-ribs. Its a different world in the kitchen.

It should stand up well for the task that you mention the Marines using.

Will
 
It`s pretty hard to beat a french chef`s knife or a chinese cleaver in the chopping area in the kitchen.As to price,you will use these for the rest of your life.Amoratize it.I`ll leave that to the CPA`s.

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The right tool for the job.

However, in discussion with Bill, khukuri's are quite common in Nepal kitchens.

I am not proficient enough to make it work for me. Great for solving frozen food problems though.

Will
 
For whatever it's worth, Yangdu now uses the khukuri for chopping tasks exclusively. For slicing, cutting, etc., she has four or five other knives that she uses. She has become an American.

Uncle Bill
 
Cobalt, chopping up a YaK?!!! And Bill tells ME in another thread to go back on my medication?
 
Rusty, medication has no effect on me.

****
I'm crazy, So what of it?
 
... if testing indicates certain limitations should one go ahead and offer an uncondtional guarantee or a guarantee which is within the limits of the ability of the knife?
Click to expand...

Those Craftsman breaker bars are factory made and all the same (I assume; I doubt I got three defective ones in a row). The guarantee could be considered misleading in a sense.... It might be more appropriate if the guarantee said in large print: "THIS BREAKER BAR IS GUARANTEED NOT TO BREAK UNLESS USED FOR ITS INTENDED PURPOSE." Then at least customers would know what they were buying ... or not buying....
smile.gif
{By the way, I don't think I mentioned this is a 3/4" drive breaker bar and two of the times I broke it I wasn't even using a pipe for extra leverage. I might be a little stronger than average but I'm a human being and not a hairy monster with big feet, and IMHO it should not be possible for anyone remotely human to break a 3/4" drive breaker bar, especially without using a pipe for leverage....)

Craig's khukuries, on the other hand, are hand made by a variety of bladesmiths. I expect most of them are good (I certainly hope most of them are good) and if a few aren't, with any luck the replacement will be good -- unlike those Craftsman wrenches with their unfortunately uniform standard of quality. That's why I suggested keeping the unconditional guarantee -- getting a good replacement is not the same as getting a good khukuri in the first place, but it's better than not getting a replacement.

-Cougar Allen :{)


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I agree about guarantees, especially for a line of knives made by different bladesmiths. Luck may have it that you might get a couple of rejects in a batch, but the guarantee guarantees that you won't be stuck with the bad knife if you should be unlucky enough to get it.
 
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