Kuhkuri Styles.

[Yvsa]

:
I was wondering since Nepal is a little larger than North Carolina and according to my encyclpedia it has 75 districts.

One question is does each valley,district,area have its' own style of Kuhkuri?

I am curious as to how and why each style developed. I can see the need for different ones,because having the Vilage Dhankuta and an AK it is obvious that one is better than the other for certain tasks.

I was splitting a piece of Bois'D'Arc that my cuz brought over and the AK was to thick to pound through with my mallet. The piece already had a split running down one side.
I used an old Lamb Splitter I had laying there instead of walking in here to get the Villager that is about like the cleaver.

Another question is since there was once a kingdom where people worked under different conditions was there some kind of criteria for different style Kuhkuri's coming from orders of the King and his administrators?
That would kind of make sense to me,because then there would be different styles for different kinds of work and then the same for weapons.

Perhaps there were military units that had different missions etc. to perform and needed different tools than some light fast unit that hit and run?

Or did they just happen because this particular Kami one day took artistic license and started making them different than Joe over in the next valley so they could be told apart?

Uncle Bill I think you said in a post one time that the top long the spine used to be flat/square
along the top and rather sharp with no radius.
Is that correct?
What caused the change over to the angle and radiused edges along there now?

Do you know how many styles they are ?
Do you know if they change from one town to the next in the same area?

Does each Kami in thier own village only make one style of Kuhkuri although it may be of different lengths?
Or do they make what people want and ask for a specific task?

I guess all this leads up to ...
Are there gonna be enough different ones that I can have as many as John powell and not duplicate any or am I gonna have to start searching gun and knife shows,old dusty barns,junk shops,flea markets and antique stores to satisfy this habit I seem to have aquired?

I had aquired it long before I found bladeforums and H.I.but I never specialized before.

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>>>>---¥vsa---->®
The civilized man sleeps behind locked doors in the city while the naked savage sleeps (with a knife) in a open hut in the jungle.

 

[Bill Martino]

Yvsa, that is a bunch of questions. Some of which I can answer and some I just don't know.

One thing is certain, necessity is the mother of invention. Nepal ranges in altitude from about 300 feet to almost six miles and the khukuri requirement for people living at the 15 to 17 thousand foot altitudes is much different from those living in the jungle at 300 feet. Khukuris adapted to conditions. This is the reason for many different styles and sizes.

Khukuris as weapons also depended on what job they were supposed to do. Men who defended the wall under seige used very large and heavy blades -- often koras rather than khukuris. Infantrymen whose job it was to strike quickly used lighter and faster khukuris.

When Yangdu was a young girl and used to travel to India to visit relatives she would ride what is called the "night bus." The male passengers would often try to become amorous with female passengers during the darkness of night so Yangdu would always tape a small 9 inch khukuri to the inside of her thigh. If she was approached she would reach under her anghi (long Sherpa dress)and whip out her little khukuri. Her stock phrase was, "if you want to keep that hand then keep it off me."

A different khukuri for different needs. How many styles and sizes? Like the leaves on trees. But I don't believe the king ever mandated anything about khukuris except to make it a symbol of the country.

Uncle Bill