- Joined
- Mar 25, 2014
- Messages
- 2,010
Many of you know that I favor a plain Jane villager khukuri. Allow me to tell you why and use this morning's "Labors of Hercules" as only one example. It's time to start preparing Corn Patch for it's annual transition into becoming Little Russia, so I headed out to a friend's back forty to assist removing a few hundred locust saplings and miscellaneous indigenous vegetation. He had a new chain saw he was itching to try out. Since this was to be "big" stuff to chop, the little Katunje stayed at home and I was accompanied by my old friend, "Kesar Lal". It's my opinion that ol' "Kesar Lal" is worth his weight in chain saws so a modern version of Paul Bunyan taking on the giant chain saw commenced.
The chain saw cranked up and Kesar bit wood. 90 minutes later, I noticed that my right arm was about five and three quarters of and inch longer than when we started and throbbing mightily. You could say I was glad the chain saw needed to fill up on gas again. Sweat was running down my back, into my eyes because my "I :love_heart: HI" ball cap was literally saturated and it had no where else to go, but down. Break was up and it was back to work. When noon rolled around, we stopped, and to about 25 rods out from the corner post, 68 saplings and 7 clumps of multiflora rose were laying sprawled out or piled up.
For those of you who don't know what a rod is, it's an ancient imperial measurement, still used by surveyors, that is equal to 5 1⁄2 yards, 16 1⁄2 feet, which is 1⁄320 of a statute mile, or one-fourth of the surveyor's chain. Chain is another measurement as well, but that's another story.
Most of the saplings were in the 1 inch to about 2 inches thick range. Some had limbs that were 1 inch thick, too. What was really cool was that ol' Kesar Lal bit completely through about 85% of those saplings with only one swing. The tip had ploughed through enough dirt that two nicks appeared, but overall, the blade was still pretty dern sharp. This villager khuk really holds a working edge. The nicks hammered out easily enough that whetting was all the tip required to be put back to "as new" condition. My leather work gloves polished the satisal wood (सती साल ....and did you know it's of the pea family?) handle so much that it now glows in the dark! Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. The chain saw beat us by a mile (which is another imperial measurement), but Kesar didn't use any gas or need his chain tightened.
So, owning a khukuri that will stand up to this kind of use and abuse, suffering no degradation because of it, well, what's there not to like? My Sunday go to meetin' khuks are still ready to go to meetin' and ol' "Kesar Lal" is ready to go back at it, so life is good. Fellers, if your collection of khuks does not include one of these mighty work horses, your collection is incomplete! Betcha Bawanna wishes he had a villager khuk that shines like mine!
The chain saw cranked up and Kesar bit wood. 90 minutes later, I noticed that my right arm was about five and three quarters of and inch longer than when we started and throbbing mightily. You could say I was glad the chain saw needed to fill up on gas again. Sweat was running down my back, into my eyes because my "I :love_heart: HI" ball cap was literally saturated and it had no where else to go, but down. Break was up and it was back to work. When noon rolled around, we stopped, and to about 25 rods out from the corner post, 68 saplings and 7 clumps of multiflora rose were laying sprawled out or piled up.
For those of you who don't know what a rod is, it's an ancient imperial measurement, still used by surveyors, that is equal to 5 1⁄2 yards, 16 1⁄2 feet, which is 1⁄320 of a statute mile, or one-fourth of the surveyor's chain. Chain is another measurement as well, but that's another story.
Most of the saplings were in the 1 inch to about 2 inches thick range. Some had limbs that were 1 inch thick, too. What was really cool was that ol' Kesar Lal bit completely through about 85% of those saplings with only one swing. The tip had ploughed through enough dirt that two nicks appeared, but overall, the blade was still pretty dern sharp. This villager khuk really holds a working edge. The nicks hammered out easily enough that whetting was all the tip required to be put back to "as new" condition. My leather work gloves polished the satisal wood (सती साल ....and did you know it's of the pea family?) handle so much that it now glows in the dark! Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. The chain saw beat us by a mile (which is another imperial measurement), but Kesar didn't use any gas or need his chain tightened.
So, owning a khukuri that will stand up to this kind of use and abuse, suffering no degradation because of it, well, what's there not to like? My Sunday go to meetin' khuks are still ready to go to meetin' and ol' "Kesar Lal" is ready to go back at it, so life is good. Fellers, if your collection of khuks does not include one of these mighty work horses, your collection is incomplete! Betcha Bawanna wishes he had a villager khuk that shines like mine!
