kukris from Nepal

JDP

JDP

Gold Member
Joined
May 31, 2003
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236
Gents (and ladies) here is a picture of the 5 types of kukris being offered by Atlanta Cutlery. You can check out their website for more details. There are some minor changes being made as we speak.

Before I say anymore, please know that I have spoken to Bill and while there is some competition going on here, he was generous enough to let me post this info. HI is NOT offering cannons, howitzers, guns, or these kukris. PLEASE do not send him emails asking for this stuff. He gets enough "feedback" as is.

These are not the highly refined and super quality HI pieces, but the real thing made for the troops and pounded out en masse. They vary quite a bit from the Indian made items especially in the wood used for the grips.
A. not a 'budhume' as listed, but the 'long leaf' from around 1870-1890.
B. yes, this is a 'bhojpure' and some have a very unique diamond shaped cho.
C. a variation of the M43 with a bizarre pana butta grip and slightly upturned blade tip.
5 kukris.jpg

D. the most identifiable of the later armoury kukris with a thick grip.
E. based on a K45 that later became the very common MK III. Note the ricasso is deeper on the grip side than the blade side. The crudest of the lot although the scabbard they sent is a well made Indian model even if the kukri is too loose in it.
 
Jeez guy, i just looked over the site selling these, and if what Uncle Bill offers are 2nds, then these are 9ths!!

They really oughta reconsider the pricing. :rolleyes:
 
You're paying for the history, not the quality. Nothing has the strength of a new HI piece, but as antiques those aren't bad prices. The amount of pieces they have may alter the market because it isn't that easy to find a 'long leaf' or trooper's quality military 'bhojpure'.
 
Holy Moly:eek: Antique khuks from the same folks that sell the khuks everybody loves to hate.;) John, if it's not unethical to ask, could you "rack and stack" these for us in terms of rarity/value? I suspect khuks "A" & "B" are the ones everybody's going to want to glom onto, but I kind of like the looks of khuk "D".

Sarge
 
neat info! pricey, but like y'all said, it's history.

The Khuk that I convexed over the weekend is a spitting image of "E" (the K45). Hope their scabbards are better'n the one that came with mine! :rolleyes:
 
I think I'll hold off on my opinions. I didn't bring these up to promote them, but as a source for anyone interested in their history. They are answering a lot of questions for me and I can finally compare some of my knives against these with pretty good provenance. All this info will go into the chapter on military kukris which is already the lengthiest one written.

One of the main things it answers is with regard to crescent markings. They do not always indicate an armoury made piece, but they do indicate quality. So a kukri marked with one, two or three crescents AND from an armoury will have been given much more attention than something like these. The same armoury will have produced similar model knives, but the crescent suggests one that was handpicked. This also may be the first positive proof of a cho indicating an armoury as the one on "D".
 
scabbards sold seperately


Hey, i don't want to sound like i'm bashing these guys sellin the khuks, but historical value only goes so far folks. In fact, what do Yugo SKS rifles sell for? Or Mosin Nagants? It's not like this stuff went thru the mass destruction period as WW2 German stuff did, so i don't really see the rarity of these.

Plus, do they really have that much into them moneywise? I sense a substantial markup here.

But hey, what do i know? These are just my opinions folks, mean nuthin' and i'm known for my big mouth when somethin' in my little mind (seems) needs said.
 
oh crap, nothing against you at all JDP!

jeez, i oughta remove my kybd and not never say shiznit. :footinmou
 
AC is definately not giving this stuff away, but their asking price for Khuks and Martinis is slightly below what the "high bid" usually is for these things at auction sites. The market may already be altering, because there are almost zero .450/577 Martinis up for sale recently, and nobody is bidding on the ones that are.

I'm a history buff, but have sworn never to collect anything so I'm not too tempted. Folks that watch their VHS copy of "Zulu" twice a week may view those Martinis differently, but I only watch it every seven years or so.
 
hey Aard,

So somebody else has an ancient browser like me.

Copy JP's link into a new browser window and see if there is a space instead of '%20' as in Gonzo's link. If so, replace the space ' ' with '%20' (omit single quotes) and if that works, you at least can view similar files by fixing them yourself, until you are able or annoyed enough to try and upgrade.

-----

From what little I've seen on E-Bay, I'd agree with Cliff355 on the khuk pricing. Price is simply set by what collectors are willing to pay for stuff like this. Especially if AC included a document certifying that the khuk came from the armory (didn't see anything about that) it doesn't seem too out of line considering that pieces identified in this forum as more modern tourist pieces have sold for more than this with incorrect identification as military khuks on E-Bay.

If I'm no mistaken, identification is a lot more uncertain for old khuks than old rifles. Coming from this armory would appear (but I could always be completly wrong) to verify that the khuks are Nepali in origin, and fairly conclusively define at least minimum age. That should be worth something--how much is up to the collectors.

Dunno how many they have, they could well find that they won't be able to quickly sell all the old khuks they acquired at the current asking price.
 
Ancient? That's me, not the browser (IE 6). Maybe I was too quick, and the pics weren't there yet.

Sure do like the looks of A & C, but...
 
By AC, I meant the sellers...

As far as looks on these go, I kinda prefer the hidden tang, non-riveted grips and the old curved spines. But they all look nice to me.

I'm kinda surprised that they haven't graded them on the basis of condition. They can't all be in an identical state. I would be kinda worried about getting something in worse condition than illustrated.

But I can't really get into collecting antiques. I have enough trouble resisting buying stuff that I can use without worrying about historical value, and proper storage.Changing from one type of crappy storage to another can do more damage than leaving something in the original crappy conditions.

Maybe somebody will buy some and make models from them to send to the Kamis.
 
They are listing most of these as having a 17" long blade. This seems kind of long. Do they mean 17" overall length like we refer to the HI knives?
 
A guy just received his IMA Martini today and is none too pleased. It is a MK IV receiver with a short lever and butt stuck on. Marked 1887 IV over KK, opposing arrows, A. He called IMA and advised them it is a Nepali re-work and should be advertised as such. They were very cordial, will take it back and send him another one and profuse in their appologies. They admitted they are not gun experts and don't quite know what they have and definately don't want anyone mad at them.

The AC stuff may be different, but may be more of the same - in which case they may drop the price.

I'll bet they will get what they want for those khuks though, because people pay more than that for old khuks of completely unknown origin.
 
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