Kukri

Honestly, if you want an apples to apples comparison, the knifetests guy needs to try out a chiruwa (full tang) version. For his kind of abuse, doesn't it make sense to buy the strongest knife? Besides, HI's have a limited lifetime warranty, which covers anything that a knife could properly be expected to do. Personally, I think that destruction testing knives should only extend as far as something that you could reasonably actually do in a situation where you'd be using your knife. Most of the stuff that guy does, you'd never actually do.
 
But if he got one of the full-tang ones he probably couldn't have broken it, and what fun would that be? :D
 
I'm not a fan of traditional kuks: the wood handles are often not that comfortable and sturdy, the wood sheath often shrinks.
My favorite is the ontario kukri !
Great bang for the buck.
 
crimsonfalcon07 said:
Honestly, if you want an apples to apples comparison, the knifetests guy needs to try out a chiruwa (full tang) version. For his kind of abuse, doesn't it make sense to buy the strongest knife? Besides, HI's have a limited lifetime warranty, which covers anything that a knife could properly be expected to do. Personally, I think that destruction testing knives should only extend as far as something that you could reasonably actually do in a situation where you'd be using your knife. Most of the stuff that guy does, you'd never actually do.
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Well....
1) The difficulty involved in destroying a (presumed) stronger knife lends no information regarding what to expect from a (presumed) weaker knife, so no it does not make sense to buy the strongest unless that is the most common/popular version, which it isn't. But as a side note, that guy in the mask went on to buy himself an HI CAK with pride because, heck, look what its little brother could handle! :cool:

2) Which part of the term "destruction testing" is confusing? To test a tool to the limits of its durability, you do not stop until the tool experiences catastrophic failure, i.e. by definition it should extend as far as something that the tool canNOT withstand, otherwise you have entirely failed to discover that objective limit and have not performed a "destruction test" at all. :(
Most users will likely never find themselves in a situation coming anywhere close to pushing such a tool to the limits of its durability (unless you're a BRKT fan, in which case you should use caution when whittling). So what? Ignorance is bliss? What if you're a user who wants to know just how much his tool can endure? Maybe you're looking for a "hard use" knife - well, "hard use" apparently varies quite a bit from user to user (again, the whittlers), so it makes sense for ALL manufacturers marketing a tool as "hard use" to support that assertion themselves via limit/destruction testing... how many do?

3) "Most of the stuff that guy does" - slicing an apple, slicing webbing, carving wood, chopping wood, batonning wood, applying stress to the tip, laterally stressing the choil area (pry), impacting hard materials (rock, metal) along the tip & edge & spine ... *shrug* Those sound like pretty common occurrences for these types of knives to me ... but I'm just one guy.
So what is "reasonable" use? The manufacturer has the right to establish whatever warranty policy they like on their product, but if the product performs admirably under "unreasonable" (ab)use, word-of-mouth promotion explodes and Himalayan Imports takes a seat of honor among those who appreciate a quality tool able to withstand the rigors of life's many unreasonable circumstances :cool:

FortyTwoBlades said:
But if he got one of the full-tang ones he probably couldn't have broken it, and what fun would that be? :D
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You mean he couldn't have broken the tang? Well, maybe not, but the handle scales might still have fractured. Eitherway, the blade remained intact and I think the knife was deemed a "survivor"... so I guess this wasn't really a true "destruction test" :) But personally, I think the fun part is the abuse itself and am always sad when the knife breaks :( It's like sports or a good action movie, sad when the presented 'hero' is defeated ... unless he goes out in a blaze of glory!

Alright too much rambling. did the OP go with a khukuri or a machete?
 
I personally own a Cold Steel Kukri Machete. You can beat the crap out of it, and it'll survive just fine. If, somehow, you manage to break it, you can buy another one for less than $20

it's REALLY well built.

If i were going to buy a higher end kukri, i'd buy a Killa Zilla... it's the closest thing to indestructible you can get on this planet.

If i had a budget to pay attention to, i'd either get the CS Gurka Kukri for 200 or the San Mai version for 450ish.

IMO, those are the best values for your money.

I don't like the traditional designs that i've seen from HI... but that's as much an aesthetic bias as a functional judgement.
 
Honestly, I think that KnifeTests and Cold Steel videos are a couple of components (like the concept of batonning; beating your knife through a stump with a stick) that a beginner invariably encounters and passes through as they embark upon the learning curve associated with knives and knife manufacturers. Passes through is the operative term, here; it is best not to get stuck on them for too long.

I have ended up with about eight HI Knives of various vintages, and none of my decisions were based on any test reports, other than the reviews that I read while researching them in the HI Forum here at BF. I think they make some of the best true, authentic Kukris out there. Price is right, too. Check out an HI ASTK.

pete
 
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to be fair, tests such as batonning your knife through a stump isn't that far fetched... I spent 12 years in the military and am convinced that first and foremost knives are tools. something as simple as making a shelter or preparing lunch can cause a knife to be used in such a way that would cause most people to raise an eyebrow in regards to the mistreatment of the knife. I've seen knives used to pry open ammo cans, hack through underbrush to clear a place to sleep, cut through fence and much much worse, so to me seeing what kind of abuse a tool can take gives me the warm fuzzy that it'll hold up to most of what I'm going to throw at it.
 
I think we need to also make a distinction between picking your favorite bush craft knife for carving a spoon in the woods, and carrying a knife for whatever comes. I've read of guys in Afganistan chiseling their way through an old stone wall, or a guy on the ESEE forum who had to chip a bunch of ice off a road to free a vehicle, or, I believe it was Mistwalker IIRC, who used the pry bar on a HEST to help open an iced over/frozen truck door. That's why I think there is SOME value in extreme testing. Folks talk about abuse, but tools (of which knives are) get abused all the time, right or wrong. I think Noss standing/jumping on a knife's handle is a little overboard, but it is to demonstrate handle/blade juncture strength. That seems to be a, maybe THE, weak spot on many knives, so I can see some sort of testing there. As for CS, I was interested to see LT hacking away at the critter's rib cage with the CS Gurkha SK5. You don't have to spent much time looking to find stories of guys lamenting a chip in their khuk's blade due to hitting bone with it. So, again, I think there's some value there.

For the OP, There are many good kukri like objects out there. I own several. I own more HI khuks though. I find the handles very comfortable and extremely strong. I haven't tried to re-work a horn handle (the ones I own are very comfortable), but the wooden handles allow almost endless customization. Some other company's khuks have small handles, since Nepali people have smaller hands than many of us here, but HI makes khuks with ample handles just for Americans, most models at least. Whatever you decide, I would highly recommend spending some time on the HI forum and watching for a Deal of the Day to hit. A good DOTD blemished (cosmetic) khuk is a good cheap way to discover some awesome, authentic khuks. Good luck.
 
rustyrazor said:
to be fair, tests such as batonning your knife through a stump isn't that far fetched... I spent 12 years in the military and am convinced that first and foremost knives are tools. something as simple as making a shelter or preparing lunch can cause a knife to be used in such a way that would cause most people to raise an eyebrow in regards to the mistreatment of the knife. I've seen knives used to pry open ammo cans, hack through underbrush to clear a place to sleep, cut through fence and much much worse, so to me seeing what kind of abuse a tool can take gives me the warm fuzzy that it'll hold up to most of what I'm going to throw at it.
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And I don't have any issues with destruction test videos that actually entail things like people might do. But beating on a knife with a sledgehammer until it breaks, for instance? What does that prove? I don't mind abuse that's the sort of abuse that I could actually see someone being able to do while using their knife. Heck, I love that thread with the guy who batons through everything from concrete blocks to a refrigerator with a BK2, although I'm not sure how informative it really is. But some of it is just stupid.

The other issue with those videos is that the VAST majority of people who put such stock in those videos would never do anything demonstrated in the videos. I mean seriously, people refuse to buy a knife because it can't baton through a concrete block without chipping, and yet most of them don't baton anyways. The majority of knife users don't put their knives to the destructive uses that knifetests does, and yet they say they won't buy a knife if it breaks? Especially when they don't even bother buying a chiruwa? If you're the kind of person who uses their knives to death, then buy a knife that is supposed to be able to stand up to the abuse, and don't lump the entire brand into the one test either.
 
I like Noss because a dude in a hockey mask going apesh!t on some snob's pet knife with a big ballpein = great entertainment

IMO only kids would take his "results" as gospel but YMMV
 
I couldn't agree more with some of the "testing"... some of it is just pointless spectacle. I would argue that in the case of standing on the handle, there may be some backing to that in regards to the handle/blade junction which as stated above is a known weak point of a lot of knives, as well as hammering through the metal of a fridge could represent freeing someone from type of car wreckage in extremis. If testing is done as such to demonstrate the extreme end of the spectrum of what one might find themselves encountering, then I believe there is some merit to it and have done a fair bit of it on my own (and a lot of other) blades over the years. One post of note I had to laugh about from "Jdk1" was where a soldier had used a blade to hammer through a wall in afghanistan, as I had also posted that on another forum a while back... the wall was dried mud, not stone. but it was still impressive, lol
 
rustyrazor said:
I couldn't agree more with some of the "testing"... some of it is just pointless spectacle. I would argue that in the case of standing on the handle, there may be some backing to that in regards to the handle/blade junction which as stated above is a known weak point of a lot of knives, as well as hammering through the metal of a fridge could represent freeing someone from type of car wreckage in extremis. If testing is done as such to demonstrate the extreme end of the spectrum of what one might find themselves encountering, then I believe there is some merit to it and have done a fair bit of it on my own (and a lot of other) blades over the years. One post of note I had to laugh about from "Jdk1" was where a soldier had used a blade to hammer through a wall in afghanistan, as I had also posted that on another forum a while back... the wall was dried mud, not stone. but it was still impressive, lol
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Rusty it probably was your story! I knew I read it somewhere. If the dried mud there is anything like south Texas, it might as well have been granite. To me, it's a great example of how knives get pressed into service to handle everything. They tend to be all you have when you really need something else:).
 
no doubt at all it wasn't my story, I'm pretty sure that kind of thing happens a lot. I just laughed because it was so similar to the one I had posted a few weeks back, and you are sooo right about the dried afghan mud, it's comparable to the adobe structures you would find in some areas. the afghans actually make their homes, fence walls and the whole nine yards with this stuff and it feels a lot like concrete until it gets wet... then it's slippery concrete, and I've seen guys chisel away at it to make their way through it or to make foot holds to climb over. like you say "the knives they carry tend to be all you have when you really need something else" this in most aspects is the exact reason I've started reading this thread, to try to find them an improvement on what I'm using now.
 
I just bought one of these from DRAGON FORGE handmade from a leafspring but I am having him put in stainless pins
and sanding the handle so black and not yellow is the top layer

120 bucks but it doesn't come with a sheath
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I don't mean to insult, but there's pretty much nothing that I find visually appealing about that knife. It looks pretty capable though, be sure to let us know how it performs.
 
I am a utility over beauty type guy

I would take my 250 buck casio pathfinder 1500 over some $10,000 fancy watch that just tells time when the one I have is solar powered has a altimeter barometer thermometer a compass a tide graph a moon graph and on top of all that it has atomic time keeping yet it's mostly black plastic and not fancy gold and platinum with a 9 jewel movement
 
Not sure how it's going to cut in comparison to the other knives discussed on this forum... edge geometry seems a tad more blunt than my kukri, but it looks as tough as a boiled owl. and I agree with muaddib1116, that she's no show pony, but if it works, who cares what it looks like right?
 
SilentJohn said:
I am a utility over beauty type guy

I would take my 250 buck casio pathfinder 1500 over some $10,000 fancy watch that just tells time when the one I have is solar powered has a altimeter barometer thermometer a compass a tide graph a moon graph and on top of all that it has atomic time keeping yet it's mostly black plastic and not fancy gold and platinum with a 9 jewel movement
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Definitely true, but sometimes you can have both, right? My only functional concern with that beast is that the pommel looks rough enough to do a number on the side of your hand. I did a google search for Dragon Forge, but all that I could find was an ornamental iron work company and some sort of board game company. Do these guys have a website? Thanks.
 
unless they were looking for a wall hanger, I don't think anyone in history has ever bought a kukri or any other "tree beater" worried about scratching the polish. and most people want a little "character" on their big knives to have something to talk about... that being the case, I couldn't be more in agreement with muaddib1116 with that pommel... if you use that hard wear gloves! not a knock against your choice, it seems like it will do the job with no problems (for an ugly knife, lol)
 
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