kukri warrenty

A

ajim1942

Joined
Feb 5, 2009
Messages
27
Folks I have been in contact with Yangdu discussing a problem she has with a warrenty issue. It seems that a person in alaska baught a kukri from a third party. (not through HI) He took it out and used it and broke it. Now he wants yangdu to replace it with two kukri to cover his cost and loss of time.
The unknowns are how long he has owned this kukri, how he was using it.
My advice to Yangdu was not to honor this request. Years ago Bill had this
problem with people buying used kukri braking them and demanding a refund or new kukri. His policy was he would not honor a warrenty unless it was purchased by that person from HI and not a third person.
Yangdu is a honest person and HI is a small busniess and it operates on a shoestring budget. Every kukri that she has to replace cuts deeply into the meager profit that HI makes. This affects the Kamies and their famileys.
I fully expect that we on this fourm are are going to hear some whinning and Bi--hing about how unfair HI is and that they dont stand behind their product. the warrent isnt any thing but a sham.
I hope that the HI comunity will unite behind Yangdu on this issue as she
needs our support.
When people come on the fourm and complain about braking their kukri
question them ask why when and where they broke it. Dont just tell them to contact Yangda and that she will make wright. All this does it put her in a tight spot and thats not fair to her.
Lets stand behind Yangdu and her dicisions. Let her hear from us. She would appreciate.
I hope that this is taken in the wright way. If I have offended any body I apolligize but some things need to be said.
Jim W
 
For a while, the warranty has only covered the original owner. That's common with many warranties.

And the only blade I know of that has a break 1 get 2 free is the Chiruwa Ang Khola. I want to know what he was doing to break one of those beasts.
 
The issue with the warrantee only being honored to the original purchaser has been in place for quite some time. I've known about it since i first joined here in 2007. Uncle Bill changed it for just the very reasons you speak of.

She should NOT honor the Warrantee to the person in Alaska. If they have a problem with it and choose to cause trouble for Yangdu, let them come here and it will be explained to them why the are not getting replacement and why they should'nt cause trouble.

People need to understand that these khukuri are tools, they are not indestructable and need to be used with due respect and care. Some of these khukuri are made for hard use and some are not. None of them is made to withstand indescriminate abuse.

I'm am behind Yangdu 100%.
 
Looks pretty cut and dried to me.
The warranty only covers the original owner, he isn't the original owner, so he isn't covered.

What's the contention?
 
We've had this dispute very heatedly, and very recently. And it turned out exactly as you describe: mysterious strangers complaining aggressively, and the rest of us supporting Yangdu. We're waaaayyyyy ahead of these SOBs.

Thanks for the heads-up, though, and welcome to the Forum.
 
What ya'll said. And what could he have been doing with it to break it? These things are tougher than a sack of anvils.
 
MY 2 cents: 1st I have several Hi Kuk's and I am very pleased with the quality and construction for a good price. But to play devil's advocate, when the web site states / claimes " the unbreakable knife!" I feel they have to back it up, regardless of the owner or what you do to the knife. If HI feels the knife was broken on purpose they should up hold the warranty and not sell to that individual again. If they don't honor the warranty I feel that diminishes HI's rep. Remember they were the ones advertising a unbreakable knife. I can only compare this with the Busse co who also survives by their warranty. The term loose a battle but win the war sounds appropriate. With all that said it sounds like the guys from Alaska is a jerk and is trying ti take advantage of the situation.
 
Im gonna have to side with Karda. Anything can be broken if you try hard enough. Besides, TRYING to break and accidentally breaking are two different things. Yangdu has every right to refuse this persons request.
 
bui said:
But to play devil's advocate, when the web site states / claimes " the unbreakable knife!" I feel they have to back it up, regardless of the owner or what you do to the knife. If HI feels the knife was broken on purpose they should up hold the warranty and not sell to that individual again. If they don't honor the warranty I feel that diminishes HI's rep. Remember they were the ones advertising a unbreakable knife.
Click to expand...
The ONLY place on the Website where it says "unbreakable knife" is in the Ang Khola section. The only khukuri warranteed for 2 free if you break it is the CAK. Quite Frankly..... IF you manage to break or bend either of these models, you are subjecting them to unnatural ABUSE, which is NOT warranteeable. It is this type of attitude that is the reason why H.I. had to implement the new warrantee. http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6929044&postcount=1
 
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I can see how someone might accidentally break one of the lighter HI khukuris like the Kobra or Sirupati, maybe, but the Ang Khola? Mine's not even a chiruwa version and I know well just how tough it is.
 
bui said:
But to play devil's advocate, when the web site states / claimes " the unbreakable knife!" I feel they have to back it up, regardless of the owner or what you do to the knife. If HI feels the knife was broken on purpose they should up hold the warranty and not sell to that individual again. If they don't honor the warranty I feel that diminishes HI's rep. Remember they were the ones advertising a unbreakable knife. I can only compare this with the Busse co who also survives by their warranty.
Click to expand...

OK, as said, only the Ang Khola models are called "unbreakable", and only Ang Kholas with the chiruwa handle have/had the 2-for-1 warranty. The OP did not mention the model, so we cannot assume this. Also, I came here after Uncle Bill passed on, but as long as I have been here, the warranty stated the blade was warrantied to the original owner, and even the CAK was "unbreakable" in "normal use". It's an outdoors tool, meant to chop, slice, and hack, wood, soft vegetation, meat and bones. If you break it chopping concrete, rebar, run it over with a forklift, etc, it's not normal use and not warrantied, never has been as long as I've been here.

You can't compare Busse or RAT Cutlery's warrantys (they are both unconditional) with HI's because they approach things differently. RAT and to a greater extent Busse, are banking that the user that buys there blade will never do anything to break them. Both are designed and heat treated to be bent to obscene angles, and in the case of Busse, they love to go to shows and chop cement blocks, etc with their knives.

But you pay for that. A RAT RC3 costs more than most of my kukris (and the smallest I own is an 18 incher). Busses cost WAY more. My BAD cost over $300. My Battle Mistress cost 2.5x what my 20" CAK did. Bottom line is the bottom line. For the very few cases where someone breaks their knives through abuse or just use, they have the $$ padding in their profit margin to absorb the cost just fine.

HI runs on the strength of the Kami's skill. Remember, these guys and their apprentices, bang these things out with hammers on pieces of railroad track as anvils, and then heat treat them with a pot of boiling water. The initial pouring or water ont he hot blade hardens the spot, then the progressive pourings, after waiting a time for the blade to cool a little, tempers the sweet spot so it's not too brittle. AND IT'S ALL DONE BASED ON EXPERIENCE. No heat treat ovens. No CNC machines. It's a testament to thier skill that the things don't break all the time. From my understanding, there's few times the blade will break when it's not a heat treat problem, and most of those will be due to flaws in the steel. If they mess up and splash some water on the Cho area, it may be brittle and break. Don't allow air cooling enough on the sweet spot and it may be too brittle and break. Their may be a flaw in the steel and the blade will break.

Now seriously, the thinnest kukri from HI I've seen is 3/8" thick. What are you going to do with hand power to break it? A 300 pound man would have no problem wedging the blade between something and hanging off it. That much steel won't be impressed. Hit a piece of metal or rock with the sweet spot? Yeah, you might break it. Hit it somewhere else and badly roll the edge? Sure. But break it?

The OP also did not mention how it broke. Did the scales break off? Definitely possible. Did it break in two? Did he hit something hard (concrete, metal, frozen wood) and break the edge at the sweet spot? Did he clamp it in the vice and put a pipe over the handle to see if it would bend 135°?

We don't know. But the clincher goes back to the fact that he isn't the original buyer. This is not an unheard of warranty expectation either. Want an example of high-end gear that does not warrant the non-original buyer? Kifaru. Doesn't seem to be hurting their rep any.
 
I'm with you guys on this as well. I used to be active on this forum way back in the Uncle Bill days and remember very clearly that the warranty has ONLY applied to the original buyer, and definitely NOT to folks who buy from 2nd/3rd parties, use/abuse the khukuris in question and come asking for a new piece. Also, the "unbreakable" applied to only specific model(s) and NOT to all the models in the HI line-up.
 
We have obviously covered the warranty pretty well in this post and the last..bottom line is Uncle Bill had a warranty back in the magazine ad days (I remember they were my first contact with HI) he honored it. He changed it slightly when there became a secondary market for HI knives, he honored that. Now Yangdu has had to change the policy once again and with out a doubt she will honor it generously.

Go to any forum where modern Kurkris are talked about and you'll hear people praising HI knives, not the warranty, the knives, that's what drives business.

I keep hearing how this and that will hurt HI's rep. The only people who it is going to upset are the people who are trying to get something for nothing. They aren't the repeat customers that a business needs, they aren't the people who will stand by a company and continue to make that one purchase even though they don't have the money, but do because they just have to have another HI knife. They are the people who but a HI knife off Ebay or used from a forum somewhere and think of how they can get by the rules. So if the new warranty causes them to go some where else who cares, they aren't helping HI's business they are hurting it.
 
bui said:
MY 2 cents: 1st I have several Hi Kuk's and I am very pleased with the quality and construction for a good price. But to play devil's advocate, when the web site states / claimes " the unbreakable knife!" I feel they have to back it up, regardless of the owner or what you do to the knife.
Click to expand...

You may "feel" that calling it the unbreakable knife creates a warranty, but from a legal standpoint, it does not. It is advertising puffing. Anyone attempting to bring a lawsuit against H.I. on the idea that is a warranty would have their case dismissed fairly quickly.
 
just for the record, I'm not sticking up for guy or saying he has a legal case at all. I never said that or hinted at that.
 
Jim and everyone thank you for your continue supports and good suggestions to HI
 
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