Kumar Goes Old School (light m-43 review)

O

ozarkedge

Joined
Nov 1, 2014
Messages
5
Hi everybody,
Long-time lurker, first-time poster here.

Like a lot of folks I really liked some of the comments about the M-43s. They seemed versatile for general use. Wildmike’s positive comments really made an impression on me. I knew I wanted a user, so I asked Auntie about a light one and she recommended Kumar. Awesome! His reputation precedes him and I loved the looks of his blades that showed up in the DDs: very graceful and fluid. So I ordered a horn-handle by Kumar, preferably under 28 oz.

Well, it came in earlier this month and here it is (sorry for the bad picture quality):

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She’s a beauty. 18 ¼ inches long and—get this—27.1 oz. Awesome! The curve is perfect, like it’s taken right out of a circle. Here’s a shot of the lines:

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It gets better. The balance is insane. I’ve held other knives with much more forward balance that are much lighter but feel way heavier. Holding this one feels like wearing brass knuckles. It just rests on your hand, like it disappears.

Well, I had to get it out and put it through the rounds. When I chopped I found it generates tons of force. A combination of the forward kukri profile and the light-ish weight make this such a force multiplier. Like moving an energy field around. Just generates way more velocity than you would think it should.

When I was roughing up some deadwood I found another nice surprise. I heard the “ping.” Let me explain. In some of these forums I remember somebody (don’t remember who) describing how some kuks will ring like a bell when you cut with them. I realized that’s what I was hearing, this tiny ring. It sounds like a very small chime. It only rings along the sweet spot, but you can pluck it like a guitar string or tap it (lightly) with the chakmak. I actually wondered what note it was. Turns out it’s a G. What a cool surprise! Makes it feel like a light saber when cutting weeds—shing! Shing! Just watch out for your other arm, Luke . . .

Anyway, I couldn’t be happier with this M-43. This is such a fine blade, I have a hard time imagining one that would suit me better.

Thank you, Kumar and Auntie for putting it in my hands! And thanks to all the rest of you for your knowledge and enthusiasm in my time lurking here. What a great community.
 
Great post, thank you for sharing
 
That is so old school - design, weight @ length and all, I just LOVE it. Good choice, I'm sure you will enjoy it immensely! And welcome!
 
Welcome out of the shadows to you Ozarkedge!

You appear to have picked up an incredible introduction to HIKV. :D

Seriously though, I am glad that you found one that is such a perfect fit for you right away. And it looks like a beauty as well. Seriously gorgeous lines. And to hear a 'G' while working with it, that must be stunning. Did you need a tuning fork or instrument to identify it or are you gifted with absolute pitch? That is just awesome!
 
Shavru, I wish I had perfect pitch, but I just matched the note to a guitar and G is where it seemed to match up. But I should probably try it with a tuner sometime.

Thanks to all of you for the welcome and the friendly comments!
 
Ozarkedge, Welcome to the forum and glad to read your post. I thought that I was hearing things on occasion with my M43SB. I am very deaf so there was a few WTF moments that were experienced and now you have cleared up the mystery--not my hearing aids going out on me. The reference to a light saber is most appropriate, too. Several of us have felt the same way and mentioned it. Guess you could call Bawanna and I Luke Streetwalker and Chewedtobacco. Again, thanks for the post.
 
Thanks for sharing!

I never really paid attention to the sound of a Kuk in use. Now I'm cursed for ever as I'm going to listen from now on.

I'm sure the sound of a vibrating blade can tell you a lot about its properties. I guess you must have very educated ears to appreciate it. Which is certainly not my case.

But I can recognize the sound of failure though :-) On a tool or a sport device, cracked and or weaken material sounds and feel unmistakably wrong. You know right away you have a bad one in your hand.
 
It's things like this that make me think about a custom...wow.

(Of course, mine would have some engravings from the tip to the very end of the spine, maybe even on the handle and even bolster. I saw Bookie listed as reading this thread, I had to add this.)
 
Snow, khuks will ring ONLY if the bolster, the rivets, and the handle piece(s) are tight to the blade. ANY loose item will make a thud as the blade is struck with a light blow with a ball peen hammer or a heavily vibrating sound. A perfectly tight specimen will actually ring like a bell and be quite audible. After checking all of my collection, only two ring well and the M43 sings the loudest and clearest.
 
Bookie, thanks for the welcome and your comments about the "ring." That clears a lot up. I hadn't thought of it but that makes sense that the tight bolster, rivets and handles might allow that sound. When I first heard it I wondered if my ears were playing tricks on me too!

Moonw, if you have some specific ideas about what you want it might be worth thinking about a custom. My experience was great. Like Tom Petty says, the waiting was the hardest part. But totally worth it!

Snowwolf, great point. When a bum tool makes contact, it just feels like a dead thump. I have some of those in my collection. It's so funny how you can feel quality.

Thanks for your comments, guys.
 
What Bookie says is true...But....(put you dolls up now);) If the conditions aint right it wont ring even if everything is tight. Not to get into wave theory details but if you have a piece of pipe try pinching it on the end let it hang and tap it with a screwdriver or something. Keep pinching it lower and lower and you will find that there are some spots that will ring and some that give you a "thud". If you were to put a mark on the pipe where you are pinching it everywhere it rings you will notice the marks are equal distance from each other. That is half the wavelength of the vibration. To relate this to a sword or large knife. Your hand on the handle is like where your pinching the pipe and the log your chopping is the screwdriver you used to ring the pipe. If you don't want the pipe or knife to vibrate (and you don't) then you have to find the "sweet spot". The sweet spot is where it don't vibrate you all to heck. The sweet spot is not necessarily where the hardest part of the heat treatment is or the lowest part of the belly even. Since you cant move the handle to find the sweet spot then you have to strike the log in the position that doesn't vibrate you all to heck. From what I have read about sword construction this theory is considered when building a good sword or even Khukri. Khukris may not ring at even intervals because they are not uniform like a pipe but still follow the same theory. Take that blade that don't ring and pinch it at the tip and ring it at the cho. Then pinch it lower and lower until it rings. Surprised? If you have a knife that feels harsh while chopping then you likely haven't found the sweet spot. My bet is that the Kamis know where it is and harden the knife appropriately. That's probably why models are built at certain lengths. This is also a consideration when you want a custom and it just has to be 2x"s. There's more to it than just pounding out a certain shape and length.
Confused now?:D
 
ndoghouse said:
What Bookie says is true...But....(put you dolls up now);) If the conditions aint right it wont ring even if everything is tight. Not to get into wave theory details but if you have a piece of pipe try pinching it on the end let it hang and tap it with a screwdriver or something. Keep pinching it lower and lower and you will find that there are some spots that will ring and some that give you a "thud". If you were to put a mark on the pipe where you are pinching it everywhere it rings you will notice the marks are equal distance from each other. That is half the wavelength of the vibration. To relate this to a sword or large knife. Your hand on the handle is like where your pinching the pipe and the log your chopping is the screwdriver you used to ring the pipe. If you don't want the pipe or knife to vibrate (and you don't) then you have to find the "sweet spot". The sweet spot is where it don't vibrate you all to heck. The sweet spot is not necessarily where the hardest part of the heat treatment is or the lowest part of the belly even. Since you cant move the handle to find the sweet spot then you have to strike the log in the position that doesn't vibrate you all to heck. From what I have read about sword construction this theory is considered when building a good sword or even Khukri. Khukris may not ring at even intervals because they are not uniform like a pipe but still follow the same theory. Take that blade that don't ring and pinch it at the tip and ring it at the cho. Then pinch it lower and lower until it rings. Surprised? If you have a knife that feels harsh while chopping then you likely haven't found the sweet spot. My bet is that the Kamis know where it is and harden the knife appropriately. That's probably why models are built at certain lengths. This is also a consideration when you want a custom and it just has to be 2x"s. There's more to it than just pounding out a certain shape and length.
Confused now?:D
Click to expand...

Mind-blown.
 
Moonw said:
Mind-blown.
Click to expand...

Mine would be too if I had anything to work with.

I tried ringing my khuks yesterday and in addition to the reminder that I have the highly refined hearing capabilities of a tamarac stump I got mixed results.

Kind of thinking along the same lines as kamidog, I held them differently with differing results.

A couple sounded very close to ringing, my 25'' siru and 25" chitlangi clearly rang or at least sounded like an official ring to me.

My 20" + or - Foxy was very close if not a ringer. The little Bashpati tried hard and it was close too. I wonder is they was suspended by a string and tapped if they would ring.

The rest sounded and felt flat to me.

First I was infatuated with them singing bowls what make noise when you run your finger around the edge, now knives that ring like a bell...............................I think I got something from yall.
 
Now he's gonna come back and explain that weather has an influence, too, and it doesn't get hot or warm enough in your area so that the whole ensemble would reach some mystical equilibrium for you to hear the effect.

(I got the wavelength explanation, I'm wondering if he was talking about the center of percussion in the rest of the post?)
 
M43 Is very attractive model,seem very much effective khukuri shape...Especially because of significant curvature of edge...love this one!
 
Moonw said:
Mind-blown.
Click to expand...

Agreed. That explanation was pretty awesome. Makes me wonder how (if at all) the wavelength is affected by the chiruwa tang or the unusual blade profile of the M43 (the steep drop, for example). Does it make the M43 more likely to show this effect than others? Really interesting, ndoghouse.
 
What I understood is that your kukri is flawed and he was offering to take it from you, as a courtesy, without expecting anything on top. He's a kindhearted guy, I can attest to that.
 
ozarkedge said:
Agreed. That explanation was pretty awesome. Makes me wonder how (if at all) the wavelength is affected by the chiruwa tang or the unusual blade profile of the M43 (the steep drop, for example). Does it make the M43 more likely to show this effect than others? Really interesting, ndoghouse.
Click to expand...
Thanks guys hope it helps a little. In reality it gets a little more complicated when you attach a wet noodle to the end of that pipe i was describing. The wet noodle being your arm. That shifts things around a bit. The nodes where you made those marks on the pipe are not all equal because of the noodle hanging from it:D I hesitate using COP as the last node on the end of the knife because it may not be the point of least vibration due to the nature of the whole system. The log absorbs some, the arm absorbs some, and you just have to deal with what you got within the hardened zone but thats the general idea as I understand it. Im not a sword making expert by any means but I deal with vibration of rotational masses daily in my job. I follow ISO standards for balance grades etc. Trying to explain to my bosses why things fall apart and destroy bearing systems is a daily occurrence an sometimes fruitless but i enjoy it as it relates to knives and swords:D

Bawanna: Them Tibetan singing bowls are awesome btw. Some cool metallurgy going on there! Love to have one in the middle of my dome:thumbup:
 
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I had a massage in China a few years ago and at the end they placed a singing bowl on the middle of my chest then started it up with a strike to each of the corners of the world then the friction rub around the rim. Talk about a wonderful but STRANGE sensation! I tried for years to find a duplicated here in the US. Still only partial luck.

Amazing!!
 
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