Kukri

Welcome, both Dan and Craig.

I look forward to learning more about khukuris from both of you.

Peace.

Howard
 
Dan, answer your email. I've asked for info on Tuesday and on Wednesday w/o reply.

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Russ S
Dan, price list rec'd approx 3PM PST 3/18/99.
Thank you.
[This message has been edited by Rusty (edited 18 March 1999).]

[This message has been edited by Rusty (edited 18 March 1999).]

[This message has been edited by Rusty (edited 18 March 1999).]
 
Cliff, would you also test to see if a khukuri will cure 'foot in mouth' disease? And I thought the HI forum was lively....

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JP
 
The correct whole sentence quote from Bill Martino is:

And, Ossi, sorry to disillusion you, but there are no Gurkha troops in the Nepal Army so what does this say about your "issue" khukuri?

If someone wants to quote, please do not cut the sentence in half. The last part of it was the one that irritated me, not the first. For me it is not so important if Nepalese soldiers in Nepal are called Gurkhas like they are called in the British and Indian Armies or not, as long as they are isued with khukuris. Good knowledge for me anyway that in Nepal troops are not called Gurkhas, but the main question was about issue khukuris.

But what does that say about the real subject: can the khukuri I bought be an issue khukuri or not? Bill implicitly denies it by using "issue" in his post. He also did not tell the whole truth, i.e. that Nepalese Army does issue khukuris but to troops not called Gurkhas. If khukuri is issued to troops it is an issue khukuri even if those troops are not called Gurkhas.

I also did not like the comment Bill wrote in the other forum where he is a moderator mentioning me by name like a mislead person. I do not feel that belongs to good netiquette. At least trying to make another company's customer riduculous is bad business practice. How does the fact that I bought a knife from Craig prevent me buying from Bill or Dan (or anyone else) in the future also?

Maybe my "crime" was that I said someting positive about Craig's khukuris. I think competition is needed in every branch, even with khukuris. Otherwise it cannot be called a market economy. Besides, I never said anything bad about HI products. I believe they are high quality products, but not the only quality ones.

Ossi
 
Ossi, Bill was replying to the following statement you made:

The Khukuri I ordered from Gurkha House is made in Nepal and is current military issue with Gurkha troops in Nepalese
Army, and I wanted an issue khukuri.
Click to expand...

There are no khukuris issued to Gurkha troops in the Nepalese Army as there are no Gurkha troops in the Nepalese Army. If you look at some of the older posts in the HI forum on knifeforums.com Bill specifically discusses the khukuris used by both the current gurkhas and those used in the Nepalese Army as well as those used everyday by people in Nepal.

Many people are selling khukuris as "gurkha knives" promoting them by saying they are what the gurkhas use. This is similar to promoting knives by saying they are used by Seals etc. All Bill was pointing out was that if someone sold you your khukuri claiming it was a khukuri issued to gurkhas in the Nepalese army you were being misinformed.

John, any medical problem requiring amputation can be solved quite easily with a khukuri.

Ossi, as for promoting other products and competetion of course that's a good thing. From my dealings with Craig I quickly got the impression that he is a nice guy and a man of his word. It says a lot for him that he is willing to send his knives out for testing. That is very rare, its dead easy to hype a knife but much harder to actually be willing to be held accountable. Because he agreed to do this my opinion of his products went up a lot immediately.

Cobalt, looking forward to your review.

-Cliff
 
No, ossi, your only crime is as I mentioned in my previous post which I'm frankly sick of restating. As for Craigs Khukuri's, I believe he is selling a good product at a good price as I have stated several times already. As for Dans khukuri's, we don't know if they are of good quality or more like the Atlantic(if you know what I mean) types being sold that fall apart after only limited use. If he wishes to provide one for testing and it does well, he will have a good product to sell. But only testing will tell.
 
Rusty. I apologize for not getting to you any sooner in reply. I had dozens of requests for knives and price lists. As for the recent tone of comments it strikes me that most of you are gentlemen and I admire that.
I was asked to submit a knife for some test and refused. Why? Several reasons. Actually, one hundred thirty five reasons. I don't give knives away except to my deserving black belt students. Call me cheap. My Khukuri knives are guaranteed for life. Period. They are simply the finest I have ever found in a long life of hard travel. I have had individuals compare mine to H.I. knives and found them comparable in every way.
I tried to be polite in my refusal. I don't know the gentleman who asked for the knife, but the whole request had the air of a scam for a free knife. I hang up on phone solicitors too, but I still try and be nice about it.
To other things;
I had the pleasure of speaking with a Ghurka Master Sargeant while on my last visit to Kathmandu, He told a brief story of an encounter between Japanese soldiers and a Ghurka Regiment in WW2 - Long battle, ammunition short, fixed bayonets and then the battle cry "Aayo Gorkhali!" According to the Sargeant the Ghurka wiped out the Japanese force. So fixed bayaonet, samurai sword and wakazachi against the Khukuri - does anyone know any more about this battle? I'd like to find out the history. Dan
 
Hold on a minute, Dan.

I requested a price list from you late Tuesday night. I re-requested on Wednesday, and again this ( Thurday ) morning. I checked my email about 3 PM PST today and rec'd the price list. That makes a response time of around 48 hours for you to get back to me. I consider that to be within reason.I have gone back and edited my earlier post asking you to check your email to indicate that you did respond.

Your post above makes it seem that you are responding to questions that I asked of you privately when requesting your price list. In fact I did not ask any questions of you in my 3 requests for a price list. My requests simply asked you to forward me a price list at my email address. Period.

If I have questions for you, I shall certainly pose them to you directly, here or in private. You need not anticipate them for me. Nor need you attribute such questions ( that I have not asked ) to me.

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Russ S
 
Dan, if you send a khukuri to Cliff for testing he'll return it when he's done if he doesn't decide to buy it. I can't promise he won't return it in pieces, but obviously that's not a concern for you; you give a lifetime warranty. Of course it'll then be a used khukuri (if he doesn't buy it) so you won't be able to sell it as new; it will cost you something -- but you can't ask for better advertising, or cheaper. Cliff's knife reviews are well respected on the forums and a good review from him will certainly result in sales.

Take a look at his reviews of khukuris and other knives:
http://www.physics.mun.ca:80/~sstamp/knives/reviews.html

Naturally we can understand you're not going to send a free knife to every scam artist who calls up and claims to be a reviewer, but Cliff Stamp is not in that category.
smile.gif


He's already tested and reviewed several other khukuris and Craig Gottlieb is sending him one of his; why don't you send him one too?

-Cougar Allen :{)
 
Cougar, well said. I would not want to be a cheap knife at Cliffs place. In fact I would not want to be any knife at Cliffs place. If it survives his place, it's tough at the very least.
 
I just purchased one of Craig's khukuri (service model) and have a H.I. BAS. There are quite a few good points; it came razor sharp, the blade is quite thick 0.4", the scabbard seems adequate. Fit and finish is also good.

On the negative I found the handle too small on Craig's khukuri. Also, I encounted some problems with the edge which may be solved after I resharpen it. The initial edge may have been grind angle may be too low. It is too soon for me to comment on blade performance. So far I have only pecked at a wooden dowel and chopped up some 2x4. Both service model knives took 28 chops to get through a 2x4.

The H.I. is a more expensive knife but you do get a better knife in my opinion. The handle is larger and will fit my hands. The scabbard seems to use thicker and better leather. The chakma and karda are larger and more user friendly.

The H.I. was not terriably sharp when I got it but I sharpened it up to razor sharp to see if the edge would be damaged by chopping. The H.I. was made a little duller by the dowel and 2x4's.


Will
 
Will, or Cobalt, what are the handle lengths on Craig's Service Model ( wood or horn measured only ) compared to your HI BAS?

I'm hoping that it will turn out ( in my case at least )to be a matter of "that ain't too small, that's the compact size for compact guys!" So far, of seven HI models, my 12" Sirupati is the only one that won't eventually get the wood or horn taken down to fit me.

As long as Cliff is beating up khuks, I plan to get one of the Ontario khuks from Brigade Quartermasters, not tomorrow, but maybe mail the order in early next week, and the Ontario bolo from somewhere else. Cliff, if you're listening and want to take on more work, contact me on my email and let me know how to get them to you once I have them in hand, and any problems to anticipate. Matter of fact, I have the Ontario Marine Raider and Survival Bowies too, but have hardly used them. If you'd like to use them as a baseline to measure the khuks against, let me know that too.

I bought the Ontario stuff as emergency equipment, and they are cheap enough to have one in the car, one in the truck, a third one somewhere else, etc., as opposed to the really good stuff that'll probably be at home when I need a knife badly. But I have no idea whether they give a $40 value for a $40 cost. I'd love to find that out now instead of "in extremis."

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Russ S
 
Rusty, the size of the service handle is about like the BAS, maybe a little thinner. The blade is right inbetween the BAS and the 15 inch AK in thickness.
 
Rusty, as for the Ontario knives - sure I'll give them a going over if you want just let me know how far you want me to go. Like I noted above to Craig I can get a fair judgement of fracture points but this is not an exact science (yet anyway) so you should consider that, I can't make any promises about the returned condition. I'll send you an email with the details.

-Cliff


[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 19 March 1999).]
 
Will, thanks for the review on the knife you received. I too have found that the HI ang khola handle is a bit larger than my handles. Of course, I am not a big guy (5'8"), and so it has never been a problem for me. If you are unsatisfied, I can exchange your knife out for my larger version, the WWII, which comes with a slightly larger handle and blade. I should also point out that I can send special orders for different sized people to the knife maker.

Cliff Stamp has an knife inbound to his location. I sent it normal mail, so it may be a week or so before he has a chance to thrash it. Also, although I promised him a WW model, I ended up sending a 15" model. Two reasons: 1) I sold out of the WW models at a show I did last weekend, and won't be getting more for about two weeks, and 2) I wanted to send a knife as close in size to the Ang Khola from HI.

I've been experimenting with the price of my knives lately (based upon various internet auction prices and show prices), and have settled on a final retail price of $59.00 for the 15" model. That's $10.00 more than I used to charge, but the price is set firm. Of course, members of this forum and former members are entitled to the old $49.00 price indefinitely. I don't want to be accused of the old bait and switch
smile.gif


In any case, I have taken Will's comments to heart about the handle size. In response, I will be ordering more World War models, which should accomodate larger people quite nicely. For people of my stature, though, I think the 15" Service Number One is sufficient (Will: if you are my size, please correct me!).

We are going to start taking credit cards in a couple of weeks in response to customer demand that we do so. That's all from Gurkha House.
 
Handle sizes never seem to bother me that much, large or small. The Service model I got from Craig feels good in my hands, as does the Larger HI-WWII and AK handles. Maybe I have a onehand fits all grip, who knows.
 
Craig, Cliff has emailed me, and I'll post my reply on the Ontarios when I'm not so rushed.
This is going to be an interesting set of tests.

Woke up this morning thinking that the HI BAS khuk costs about $150, but is finest, at least semi-custom quality throughout.

At $59, your service model is about 40% the price for one of the HI's. If it can do half of what the HI's do, then you come out a winner. I don't see you and HI really being in competion. Yours are, from the comments that have come in so far, well constructed for a factory knife. Even if Cliff's tests should turn up hitherto unsuspected defects, I for one will give you time to see what you can do to get your supplier to improve the product.

The Ontario khuk is the dark horse. I've heard that Cold Steel used to have Ontario make some of their knives. Don't know if true, and the Ontario stuff is ugly, but for about $50, there are times I'd rather have 3 OK quality khuks, so one of them is always with me when I need it than one superb HI one at home when there's an emergency.

This is just a SWAG, but if I were to bet, I'd bet that the Nepalese know a little more about to make khuks than us Americans. If that is the case, let Ontario get Joe Sixpack to buy his first khuk, learn to love it, then move up to your models, and once you've sold him a few, Joe will have to buy HI's quality stuff to collect and fondle, and yours to use. Maybe ( almost ) everyone *can* win, sometimes.

Best regards, and I think you're a welcome addition to the forum as a member and as the kind of dealer who will do well here.

------------------
Russ S
 
Rusty, Glad to hear your comments, and they are well received. For what it's worth, here is my opinion on US Khukuris. The reason the khukuri is such a great knife from my perspective is that it is the only knife I know of that can double as an axe. In other words, there are few knives that lend themselves to serious chopping. The mistake I think Cold Steel has made (I say mistake - if they sell a lot of knives, it's not a mistake from a marketing perspective) is that their knife (both models) is not suited for chopping. Sure, you can leave their knife in salt water all year and it won't rust, but it frankly isn't as good at what a khukuri does very well - chopping. I've never done a Cold Steel comparison, but that's just my personal, untested opinion. It's like building a ferarri and putting a honda engine in it. Sure it may be more reliable, but it sort of defeats the purpose of the body design - going fast.

I hope I'm not rambling here. I can hardly wait to see what Cliff thinks of our Khukuris. And you correctly point out that since I'm new on the scene, I'll need a little time to iron out the kinks that customers may find as they use my product. I am certainly all ears.
 
Rusty, Glad to hear your comments, and they are well received. For what it's worth, here is my opinion on US Khukuris. The reason the khukuri is such a great knife from my perspective is that it is the only knife I know of that can double as an axe. In other words, there are few knives that lend themselves to serious chopping. The mistake I think Cold Steel has made (I say mistake - if they sell a lot of knives, it's not a mistake from a marketing perspective) is that their knife (both models) is not suited for chopping. Sure, you can leave their knife in salt water all year and it won't rust, but it frankly isn't as good at what a khukuri does very well - chopping. I've never done a Cold Steel comparison, but that's just my personal, untested opinion. It's like building a ferarri and putting a honda engine in it. Sure it may be more reliable, but it sort of defeats the purpose of the body design - going fast.

I hope I'm not rambling here. I can hardly wait to see what Cliff thinks of our Khukuris. And you correctly point out that since I'm new on the scene, I'll need a little time to iron out the kinks that customers may find as they use my product. I am certainly all ears.
 
Rusty, Glad to hear your comments, and they are well received. For what it's worth, here is my opinion on US Khukuris. The reason the khukuri is such a great knife from my perspective is that it is the only knife I know of that can double as an axe. In other words, there are few knives that lend themselves to serious chopping. The mistake I think Cold Steel has made (I say mistake - if they sell a lot of knives, it's not a mistake from a marketing perspective) is that their knife (both models) is not suited for chopping. Sure, you can leave their knife in salt water all year and it won't rust, but it frankly isn't as good at what a khukuri does very well - chopping. I've never done a Cold Steel comparison, but that's just my personal, untested opinion. It's like building a ferarri and putting a honda engine in it. Sure it may be more reliable, but it sort of defeats the purpose of the body design - going fast.

I hope I'm not rambling here. I can hardly wait to see what Cliff thinks of our Khukuris. And you correctly point out that since I'm new on the scene, I'll need a little time to iron out the kinks that customers may find as they use my product. I am certainly all ears.
 
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