Looking for a smaller Khukuri

I

Ivan

Joined
Apr 21, 1999
Messages
414
I recently joined the club of people who own real Khukuris. I have a Hiww2 with a 18" blade and got rid of my Indian cost overrun which i had and USED for 15 years. I love this knife and would like a smaller one also. What can you recommend? any advice would be appreciated. The wife and i am going to the blade show and will there be dealers in HI knives?
 
Yes, thanks for the reply. I will soon do that. I just dont know much about which of the smaller ones to get.
 
Ivan, we enthusiasts are always glad to lend a helping hand. My first khukuri was a 15" Sirupati. It is a finely balanced, light in the hand blade with a keen edge that is capable of slicing or light choping. The 12" Ang Khola is a compact and stout blade with a pronounced weight-forward bias. Think of it more as a light belt hatchet. There is also a 12" Sirupati; a very light and sharp knife. Both of mine will shave hair quite easily. These would fall into the pure weapon category, as khukuris go, though I would not turn one down in an outdoor survival situation. HI also has offered a "balance" khukuri, another light blade, though I have yet to aquire one, so will comment no more about it. An alternative is to consider some of the village models that HI periodically receives. The two that I have handled (bought one) were lighter than the similar sized HI model. Good luck, and enjoy!
Leo2
 
I have one 14" village models and it has turned out to be a great knife. It is small enough that if I run my thumb along the spine I have enough control to use it for a lot of kitchen task. The heat treat seems to really good, it has great edge retention and was undamaged after chopping a piece of soft iron.

I used it to help chop up some chicken. Everyone else used meat cleavers. Since I was not very use to chopping I would put the khukuri on the chicken and give the back of the blade a good wack. This worked quite well. Anyways the noise was too much and tended to distract when I chopped with it on the chopping board.

Will
 
As I said in another post, I will not wear one 12" Sirupati on my belt.

From Hillerman's book "Coyote Waits" is the phrase "...coyote is always waiting, and coyote is always hungry" meaning that little Sirupati is always watching expectantly and anticipating it's being used.

Another 12" Sirupati has a half inch shorter (8") blade and a slightly thicker handle and seems content to be a utility knife. Just a nice thing to have around when you didn't bring a real khuk.

The 12" AK is a real honey. It gets fondled often and long.
 
I have a little AK. I love the little thing. I haven't broke it yet. Just the other day I used ut as a prybay so i could place a shim under a piece of furniture at work. ( 200lbs. Filing cabinet) no problem. The 12" AK really amazed me.

------------------
Life is short, art endures.
 
A quick note. I like the chainpuri style handle, but one of my villagers hit something that chipped it's butt at about 11 o' clock. To work the ding out, I rounded the top point of the handle to an egg shape, large smooth end at the top, narrow pointed end at the bottom.

I am finding myself doing more of my friendly and good natured favorites this way. It tells me where the edge is by feel, and the 12" AK and 12" Sirupati willing to be utility tools have been reshaped this way. The waiting, hungry and predatory 12" Sirupati is still pointed top AND bottom.
 
When working with my Udhaipur I placed it on top of a plastic lawn trash container about 4' tall. Of course it fell off, striking the concrete driveway squarely on the handle. A big chip came out of the bell on the end of the handle, leaving the thin metal buttcap unsupported at that point. Try as I could it was impossible to locate the chip, so I couldn't just glue it back.

I considered just rounding off the bell and cutting the buttcap to shape, but I like the security that the terminal bell gives to my grip. I ended up mixing a paste of hickory chips and epoxy, and rebuilding the missing part. It looks like $#!^, but it is back to it's old functionality. That Udhaipur has years of work ahead of it, and it's only going to get uglier!
 
I'm sure the part about the unsupported wood on the chainpuri type handles getting broken regularly is gods own truth.

My point is that by rounding the top even on the brass capped butts I get that smooth friendly Hanuman top against the soft part of the my palm on the "friendlies"

The "fighter oriented" get left sharp top and bottom. The mean ones. These also tend to be the ones with thinner handles, to move faster at the cost of the hand's comfort, as opposed to the utility users with their larger grips that distribute shock over a larger area for sustained usage over a day's work.

------------------
My job today is to enjoy life , whether I like it or not!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top