Khukuri - Tool or Weapon?

[Blackdog]

There has been discussion in some of the other threads about particular khukuris having the feel of a weapon or a tool. I would venture to say that all of us have picked up certain knives, at one time or another, and immediately placed that knife into either the tool or weapon catagory. I'm not speaking about specialized cutlery like daggers, swords or filet knives, but other, more generalized blade types. Funny how that perception can differ from person to person and sometimes change, depending on where you happen to be standing at the time.

A couple personal examples:

For many years I worked for an outfit that took contracts that others couldn't or wouldn't take; in places that others couldn't or wouldn't go. More often than not, our sucess or failure (and sometimes survival) was determined by what we carried in a tool box and on our backs. For the most part, the fixed blade knife that I carried daily was either a standard KaBar or a Schlieper clip-point bowie with a 7 3/4" blade. To me they were tools, in the purest sense of the word, except on those thankfully rare occasions when seeing tomorrow seemed like a long shot. Then they were weapons in the purest sense of the word.

Recently at work we were doing some minor alterations to our work area (I now work in the control center of an airline). I had my CRKT Pointguard, a 3 1/2" non-offensive folder, open on my desk along with a claw hammer, 2 screwdrivers and a flat steel prybar. One of the admin secretaries happened to walk by and immediately commented on my having a "weapon" in the work place. She, of course, was pointing at my folder. I asked her to stop for a moment and eliminate everything on my desk that she felt could cause her bodily harm, in order of the possible damage each item could inflict on her person. First to go was the hammer, followed by the prybar, the screwdrivers, my scissors, my folder and even my stapler and 3 hole punch. We both got a chuckle out of the experiment and learned something. She handled my folder for a while and commented on how smooth it operated. It had transformed suddenly from the weapon to the tool catagory in her mind. She even asked if they made one in a "ladies size".

So, what is it that sets the tool or weapon notion in our minds when we pick up a certain Khukuri? Is it the blade shape/size, the weight, the balance or is it something more? Perhaps a seed that was planted in our minds long before we or our ancestors were ever born. I don't know what it is but the feeling is there and the steel does speak.

Am I just a little crazy? Probably. Am I alone? I don't think so. Any of you other crazies have anything to add?

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Blackdog

 

[Berkley]

The khukuri came to Nepal in the form of the deadly short-sword kopis carried by Alexander's army as far as the valley of the Indus. A coffee-table book on Nepal by their Ministry of Tourism calls the khukuri the "national weapon of the people". But most khukuris in Nepal these days are used for chopping up poultry or clearing vegetation from farm plots. Maybe the problem is conceptual: "weapon" is just a subset of "tool", used for a specific purpose. Maybe it's a dichotomy that means more to us citified Western collectors than to a Nepali farmer whose one piece of sharpened steel has to serve as kitchen implement, agricultural tool, and protector of his family. Of course, design factors affect the basic tool's suitability as either defensive or offensive weapon.

[This message has been edited by Berkley (edited 10-08-2000).]

 

[Blackdog]

Berk,

Excellent points. I totally agree with tool vs weapon being a conceptual matter.

Take an 18" AK, a 16" Panawal, a SN-1, a Cheetlang and a Mini-Jungle and lay them on a table. Now take a front-line soldier, a farmer, a Search & Rescue team member, an avid weekend camper and a cop into the room with the knives. Ask each to pick one tool and one weapon from table. Any bets on who would choose which Khukuri for which purpose? I know I would make different choices depending on which of the above roles I happened to be filling at the moment.

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Blackdog

 

[David Innes]

That's a fine post Berkley. I'm intruiged by your thought about 'ancestral memory'. There certainly seems to be something of that nature operating in me. Can't place it though!
It could be due to having met Ghurka troops when I was a kid in Singapore. My Dad was friends with a Ghurka major, who always had an escort of his own troops. They were great guys, cool, funny and smart. Never got to play with their khuk's though! Also I served in the Brit army for six years and met a few Ghurka's at a training regiment in the North of England.
So, inherited memory or functional memory? Dunno.
David

 

[Warthog]

I really can't go too indepth with this subject as I haven't had the wonderful opportunity to handle a khukuri yet

, but I can say that if I was holding a khukuri in my hands when an intruder was in front of me, I bet he would turn around and run

Psychological Warfare.

It works wonders.

Warthog

 

[christopher]

Really good question. In extremis a hammer, a baseball bat, or even a rolled up magazine can be a deadly weapon. When I pick up or unsheath my khukuri, it's for use in the field. I've never had to draw it in anger.

I think it depends on the mindset of the user at the moment. Either way, it's one heck of a tool, what ever needs separating.

Chris


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Stay Sharp!
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AKTI Member A000987

 

[Craig Gottlieb]

Although I could be cute about a weapon being a tool, I'd say that a khukuri for me is a tool, since that's all I use it for. The day it goes into combat with me and I close with and destroy the enemy with one, it will be a weapon (for me

).

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Craig Gottlieb
Gurkha House
Blade Forums Sponsor

 

[Lt. Dan]

We westerners have this habit of trying to pidgeonhole literally everything. In choosing to put the khukuri in the tool or weapon catagory, I must ask what it's mostly and best used for. We can use almost anything as a weapon when the chips are down. Without knowing for sure, my suspicion is that more agricultural work is done with them than fighting.

When the Japanese ruled Okinawa all weapons were banned. The islanders had to use a public knife that was chained down in the villages to cut meat. Miyagi went to China to learn and blend various empty-hand fighting styles (evolving to Okinawa-te, being the forerunner of kara-te). Also, local farm tools (not easily banned) were used in new innovative and effective fighting systems. The 3 best known are: tonfa, nunchaku, and bo (staff). The locals had to take things that weren't originally weapons and develop fighting technique to use them as weapons.

These things Okinawan are old-time farm tools there, but are considered weapons here. And with modern farming methods, maybe they may at some point cease to be tools and become weapons...at least in the minds of some.

Surely the opposite can happen: Weapons can be well-suited to tool-like tasks. Can it be said that their classification depends on the tally of uses? Maybe the khukuri is more weapon-turned-tool. However, in the case of the tonfa's use in police work, it's tool-turned-weapon.

The khukuri could be both weapon and tool. But I get a little concerned about this favorite knife getting wide exposure in the media. There is a very clear correlation between the current gang gun of choice and the current hot violent flick. I wouldn't want this to happen with the khukuri.

Perhaps an object's use can determine its classification. Are there any khukuri styles that make it suitable for weapon use only, or does the weapon always double as a tool?

Lt. Dan

 

[Blackdog]

If we go strictly by definition, a knife, even a gun, is a tool. the Oxford American Dictionary defines "tool" as follows:

Anything used in an occupation or pursuit.

In one issue of BLADE Magazine Ed Fowler describes knives as:

Man's most significant survival tool.

I believe that the tool or weapon determination is made by the individual every time he/she decides to make use of that particular item. As I said in an earlier post above, it depends on where you're standing at the time.

My daily carry knives are a CRKT Pointguard for utility and a Microtech Halo III for defense. I have made the determination which is the weapon and which is the tool. Yet both will easily serve the same purposes.

Lt. Dan is right, we have this overwhelming urge to put all things into neat little packages, regardless of how little sense it makes.

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Blackdog

 

[afee]

Lt. Dan just described the fall of the balisong: popular misconception. Theya re a great utility design, simple, strong and effective. But their popularity as the bad guy weapon of choice in early 80's flick's convinced most states to, at least, restrict them. I think that if a blade has been designed as a weapon, and with no other function, call it a weapon. But if its utilitarian, and only has the potential to be used as a weapon, lets just stick with tool. Just my thoughts, E.

 

[David Innes]

I reckon the khukuri as utilised in Nepal is a tool. I also think that the khukuri as purchased by us guys is an obscession, that may also be used as a weapon. Or tool.

David

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"Kaphar Hunno Bhanda Marnu Ramro"