Kasai kukri knife(BUTCHER)

[whitefox]

This is my first blade review on this site.

I bought this knife on March 3, 2011 from the "Nepalese Khukuri House". The Khukuri cost me $63.75 USD + $20.00 USD, for shipping costs :grumpy:

Link to the knife> here

The knife just arrived today as of March 21, 2011(18 days of utter wait!). That certainly is a long time, (in my perspective...) to receive a already made Khukuri. :grumpy: I had to actually remind them after 10 days, with out any notification on my Khukuri's status, asking basically on what was going on with my order...

An employee from who I believe, handles most of the customer service, "Ram", was very helpful and made sure, all my questions were answered, and concerns were met. So kudo's to you Ram! :thumbup:

Here is basic, if not the only information on the website about this knife. Copied and pasted below from the Nepalese Khukuri House

This kukri is a new invention of Nepalese kukri House after great success of Traditional village black kukri. It’s reproduction by Nepalese Khukuri House base on old baspate kukri which is popular in Nepalese remote village. The kukri is straighter than to our other regular blades. It is useful for chopping heavy woods, bamboo and so on but the specially use on chopping meat in famous city of Nepal. The 10.5” long blade comes totally black blades. It’s much heavier than to our regular bhojpure kukri as well effective and comfort to use. The kukri is not issue for Military purpose. The handle of this knife is made of Indian rose wood while the scabbard is that of Buffalo fine leather covered cotton-wood. We generate leather pouch (goji) people who can store flint in this pouch to make fire (if Necessary) when they are in Jungle. The blade is 10.5" long and measures 15.5". This knife (only blades) weighs 900 grams.

So here is the blade;

'Nick', at the back of the spine, that's what the red line is pointing at, you will see it later...keep scrolling down...Another thing, there is also rust on this Khukuri even though it was oiled when I got it . However, I think that gives the knife more character. I also enjoy any blade that has a worn used look to it.
Note; they also sent me that stand with my order. Free of charge! How nice of them

There's that 'nick' on the left side of spine.

Another 'nick' in the "Indian Rosewood" handle.

Small punctures in the back of the handle. Good Lord! This knife is starting to look more like a antique!

Flint pouch. Notice this model doesn't come with the 2 smaller knives most Khukuri's are seen with, Karda and the Chakmak. Even though it shows 2 in the Khukuri product picture!

Some wood slab in the 'Flint Pouch'. Still haven't been able to get this open.

Lastly, this small down sized Khukuri (letter opener I assume)

This was a another free gift they sent me, or maybe they do it with all orders "NKH", engraved on the blade. Overall Length is 6, 3/4". Blade is almost quarter an inch thick Also girls love this little knife. Many of them found it ever so 'cute' for all the girls who saw it. Some of them were even making birthday gift requests, for such a thing

Additional information; The blade is Spring Steel. The blade also came with a bur across the entire edge. :grumpy: I tried stropping it on leather loaded with black compound, removed some of the bur, but some of it remained. I decided to just sharpen the edge with a 800 grit then stropped it again, and it turned out great. :thumbup: Did some light cutting with this blade, haven't done any heavy chopping with it as of yet. Light cutting consisted of just cutting vegetation and some green palm tree branches. Besides the 'nicks' here and there, and the rust, and the bur issue, I still love the blade. In fact I like the rust, and nicks on the blade. Gives it more character. A more worn and used look. I like any blade like this, but I mention the nick's and rust, just to give you all the heads up if something like that may bother you, if you decide to purchase Khukuri from the, Nepalese Khukuri House.

Another side note about NKH (Nepalese Khukuri House);
All though they make just about every style of Khukuri out there, and have great prices on all of their Khukuri's, quality control does bother me. As well as how long it takes to send out a customers purchases. I don't think it should have been required on my part to contact them to remind them about my order! So if you plan on buying from the NKH, don't be surprised if it takes a while for your Khukuri to arrive, or that your Khukuri may have some 'nicks' in it.

 

[whitefox]

Holding the Kasai Khukuri.

I have medium size hands. The handle of the khukuri is really not thick like most khukuri's. You can also see a little bit of the rust there on the side of the blade near the spine that I mention in the above post. The log that I cut up with this khukuri took me about 7 minutes to get through. I am not sure what type of wood it is, all I know about this wood is that, I picked it up out of someone's trash over a month and half ago, after they cut down their tree. All I know about this wood, is that it was very hard. There was also a knot in the middle too!

4" thick. The log I cut in half here in this picture, is the same type of wood that the 2 pieces are leaning up against. So if anyone knows of what kind of wood this is, let me know.

A wood board made from pine. 1 1/2" thick! Under one minute I was able to get a 4" cut in!

Just some well seasoned pine wood that I split. Khukuri did great! However...I want to see it split, and baton through some much more harder pieces of wood.

Additional information;

I am right handed, thus I hold my blades with my right hand. I noticed when chopping through that hard wood that was 4" thick, that I did not experience any pain in my hand. However, when I chose to cut through the same wood, but 5" thick, my pinkie finger, along with the finger next to it, really ached. I decided then to choke up on the handle a little bit and begin to chop, after about 10 chops into the 5" thick unknown wood, my wrist began to hurt a little. I also tried to make feather sticks with this khukuri. It did ok, but not great. It was able to make thin feather sticks 2" long.