Kailaish Leuku knives ,lets see them .

[bigeard09]

Hello All , Ive seen the odd picture of a Kailaish Scandanavian style " Leuku " knife but never had a real good look at their profile o r heard how good they are or how they perform ? Could any member who has one please post some photos and views regarding these knives or indeed Andrew may be able to help out here ?
Thanks

 

[Kailash Blades]

Hey there Bigbeard! You may struggle to find feedback on this particular knife is we've made a grand total of 1 haha
I haven't received any feedback from the owner but I think he's bought from us again since then so can't be too bad.
We've been considering making it a standard option as it's a cool and easy knife for us to make- however the bhura somewhat fills this gap these days. We were contemplating making a 6" version of the bhura instead.
What do you guys think?

 

[bigeard09]

Hey there Bigbeard! You may struggle to find feedback on this particular knife is we've made a grand total of 1 haha
I haven't received any feedback from the owner but I think he's bought from us again since then so can't be too bad.
We've been considering making it a standard option as it's a cool and easy knife for us to make- however the bhura somewhat fills this gap these days. We were contemplating making a 6" version of the bhura instead.
What do you guys think?

Hi Andrew , from that one photo I saw , aesthetically it looked like a real nice piece of kit especially with the stacked leather handle with metal spacers ( probably best sticking to that design ) and a thin metal butt cap , so my advice would be to go for it as long as you stuck to the basic ergonomics and took into account weight and balance . One point I would say is that attention and some thought would also have to be given to the sheath as they usually come with a traditional style Saami style leather sheath and I dont know if your guys could replicate them because I believe they are wet formed from veg tan leather . Another alternative would be just to make a very well fitting wood scabbard ( I would say as thinly as possible ) with a very close fitting recess for the blade and then cover it with a decent quality leather / buffalo leather . Would really like to see you go for this one as your stacked leather handles with or without spacers are top shelf . I am almost sure this would be a success product as a medium / heavy duty bushcraft knife . also done with a simple very good sharp scandi grind !....... whats your thoughts Andrew ?

 

[bigeard09]

Hi Andrew , from that one photo I saw , aesthetically it looked like a real nice piece of kit especially with the stacked leather handle with metal spacers ( probably best sticking to that design ) and a thin metal butt cap , so my advice would be to go for it as long as you stuck to the basic ergonomics and took into account weight and balance . One point I would say is that attention and some thought would also have to be given to the sheath as they usually come with a traditional style Saami style leather sheath and I dont know if your guys could replicate them because I believe they are wet formed from veg tan leather . Another alternative would be just to make a very well fitting wood scabbard ( I would say as thinly as possible ) with a very close fitting recess for the blade and then cover it with a decent quality leather / buffalo leather . Would really like to see you go for this one as your stacked leather handles with or without spacers are top shelf . I am almost sure this would be a success product as a medium / heavy duty bushcraft knife . also done with a simple very good sharp scandi grind !....... whats your thoughts Andrew ?

Just had another look at that Leuku on your facebook page and I have to say its a classic ! Dont know if that one was done with buffalo horn or as I suspect stacked leather but its a beauty and I like the way the top section of the blade has been hollow forged definitely an improvement in the right direction for say a 5mm thickness blade , even the engraving / inlays lends itself to that particular knife . The flared end with butt cap is also not too dissimilar from an original Leuku , you gotta do it man !

 

[bigeard09]

Just had another look at that Leuku on your facebook page and I have to say its a classic ! Dont know if that one was done with buffalo horn or as I suspect stacked leather but its a beauty and I like the way the top section of the blade has been hollow forged definitely an improvement in the right direction for say a 5mm thickness blade , even the engraving / inlays lends itself to that particular knife . The flared end with butt cap is also not too dissimilar from an original Leuku , you gotta do it man !

Andrew , can you remember the dimensions for that Leuku knife because they normally come with a 8" or 9" blade although they also make larger ones . I also believe Heritage Knives make a Leuku ?

 

[Kailash Blades]

You're absolutely right that we wouldn't be able to wet form our leather but that using a wooden cavity for the handle would be an option. This construction is seen on khyber knives and similar blades in the region.
Here is the blade we're describing for reference
It is buffalo horn (black parts) with a strange kind of buffalo leather we were receiving for a while that was not fully dyed through- producing a black exterior and grey interior for this stripey look.
Specs: 9" long, 6mm thick, 1.5" wide blade, 4.75" long handle with 4" of grip.
I'm not familiar with heritage's leuku but it makes sense- there is a scandinavian connection through VK.
It's a hard one to justify currently as we have a lot of other projects in the works that need workshop time. Keep an eye out though as it may end up a standard item eventually. In the timebeing we can easily make you another one - just send through an email.
Take care,
Andrew and the team at Kailash