I was just breaking up some kindling, lazily using a cinder block instead of a chopping block. I over-swung and the khukuri sailed through the hardwood 1x4 I was splitting up. No ting, no sound... there's a big divot in the cinder block.. and the tip of the blade has NO DAMAGE. I expected a chip, roll, or other deformation after smacking it into CONCRETE..but nope, it's fine. Amazing!
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Review M43 is soooo tough...
- Thread starter stwm
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Yup 43s are HI nukes bringing destruction to everything they meet. Awesome.
Bawanna
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They are all awesome. I'm just starting to demolish my wife's kitchen in preparation for new cabinets.
Best tool I've found so far is a CAK. It's a mobile home so the cabinet framework is like a kids doll house. The real effort starts tomorrow but I was feeling the waters today.
Wanted to wait till after New Years but wife wants them NOW!.
Best tool I've found so far is a CAK. It's a mobile home so the cabinet framework is like a kids doll house. The real effort starts tomorrow but I was feeling the waters today.
Wanted to wait till after New Years but wife wants them NOW!.
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I have done the same thing more than once. HI knives are tough as all get out.
I remember a season or three ago. I was splitting firewood with a 21" GRS. I hit the log with enough gusto to split it, and my chopping block. It continued down and cleaved the piece of brick used to level the block in twain.
Now that old block was old and soft, but the GRS made it through 14" of log and at least that much block before cutting a cinder block in half and burying the tip a good 3"
I remember a season or three ago. I was splitting firewood with a 21" GRS. I hit the log with enough gusto to split it, and my chopping block. It continued down and cleaved the piece of brick used to level the block in twain.
Now that old block was old and soft, but the GRS made it through 14" of log and at least that much block before cutting a cinder block in half and burying the tip a good 3"
Awesome! Still want a CAK/AK/KLVUK/Tamang... on and on..
Holy crap. A 21" GRS would be a thing to behold! My 20" Gelbu is pretty awesome, my M43 is 18".
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I bought the GRS years, and years ago. Maybe 14ish? We had a massive storm rip through the area, and several large sweet gum trees in my mom's yard blew over blocking the driveway and crushing a fence.
At the time, she was single and the only other person who could work on clearing the wood was my grandpa who was in his mid 70s at the time. I bought the GRS from Uncle Bill specifically for clearing up the mess after using a 25" kobra as an emergency blade to chop a tree in half that was blocking us in. The kobra held up just fine, but I didn't want to push it.
It's been through more wood than most khuks sold on the forums see, I would guess. The grip was overly fat for my hand, so I had to sand it down. I did a rough and amateur job at my mom's with a grinder and a bit of sandpaper, but it worked. I need to re address my work, but it seems to be OK even all these years later...even if it has a bad case of the uglies
Anyway, I chopped and cut and hauled and stacked at those gum trees. My arms burned, my hands bled, but the GRS never faltered. I sharpened it on a butcher steel every so often. I let the mass do the work, and it smashed through the soft green wood with ease.
So even today when I want to really cut some wood, I grab the ol' GRS.
My CAK is thicker than my M43. I wouldn't know if the M43 could be billed as 'unbreakable', though. I know CAKs are billed that way.
So, this morning, I decided to process some deadwood. Sorry I can't post pictures. The CAK, at 16.5", although a tad smaller than the 18" Kumar M43, held its own. But since it was an ounce heavier, it didn't feel alive in the hand the way the M43 did, and less an extension of the arm. The CAK is a Purna, btw.
Guess there's a reason why M43s are among the popular models in the HI line-up. I'm glad I took all your advice and sprung for one. As a bonus, it's weapony enough to stay close to my bedside.
So, this morning, I decided to process some deadwood. Sorry I can't post pictures. The CAK, at 16.5", although a tad smaller than the 18" Kumar M43, held its own. But since it was an ounce heavier, it didn't feel alive in the hand the way the M43 did, and less an extension of the arm. The CAK is a Purna, btw.
Guess there's a reason why M43s are among the popular models in the HI line-up. I'm glad I took all your advice and sprung for one. As a bonus, it's weapony enough to stay close to my bedside.
My thoughts exactly! I'm really interested in trying an AK. (or CAK)
Has anyone ever done a full-on video torture test of a CAK or any HI kukri for that matter? I'd like to see that. Maybe starting with more realistic tests then moving on to ridiculous things that it really shouldn't do. I'd do it myself (I'm a filmmaker) but I don't have the cash to buy a CAK for the sole purpose of trying to destroy it and I need mine too much to do that to it.
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Someone did a destruction test of a 12" Ang Khola from Himalayan Imports a number of years ago. The videos and website are gone now, but the Wayback Machine still has some archived content:
https://web.archive.org/web/2009062...etests.com/himalayanimportsangkholadtest.html
It was controversial and got some discussion and criticism at this HI forum. For example, during the chopping test, the guy wasn't chopping at the blade's "sweet spot".
As I recall from the videos, at the last part of the "testing" the knife was put in a vise and beat upon with a sledgehammer. The blade and tang bent into somewhat of a U-shape, but the steel did not break. The "tester" concluded: "The blade is very tough and strong and very ductile. Meaning it can take a serious hammer beating and not break..."
Hmmm. Well this might need to be revisited. My company will be doing a weekly web-series this summer and testing the 'unbreakable' CAK might make a good episode. I ran it by my team and they liked the idea. We could center it around feedback and suggestions from this forum. Obviously we can't make everybody happy, but I think it'd be pretty cool. Especially if at the end, we see what happens when we try to restore it to it's former glory, even if that means welding the thing back together. I'm no expert by a long shot, but I think with help from this forum, we could make a pretty epic test.
Bawanna
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Seems insane to me to abuse something (a work of art) far beyond what any reasonable person would do to a knife, especially a hand made, one at a time knife.
One may live through the abuse with flying colors, the next may not.
But many do enjoy these torture to destruction test.
One may live through the abuse with flying colors, the next may not.
But many do enjoy these torture to destruction test.
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I agree. A blade may take the brunt of being hit with an 8lb sledge and torque with a cheater bar...or it may not.
I generally hate so called destruction tests. Noss being one of the goofier less scientific offenders, imho. A sample of one does not make for significant empirical extrapolation.
The idea of an "unbreakable" knife means that a man could not break it through heavy use or abuse by his arm alone. Putting enough torque on a blade with a cheater to bend 3/8" steel is abuse whether it can take it or not, imho.
Use your knives hard and take care of them, and they will last 4 or 5 lifetimes. Tear them up on purpose? Well don't be too shocked if all you do is destroy a quality heirloom in the process.
I generally hate so called destruction tests. Noss being one of the goofier less scientific offenders, imho. A sample of one does not make for significant empirical extrapolation.
The idea of an "unbreakable" knife means that a man could not break it through heavy use or abuse by his arm alone. Putting enough torque on a blade with a cheater to bend 3/8" steel is abuse whether it can take it or not, imho.
Use your knives hard and take care of them, and they will last 4 or 5 lifetimes. Tear them up on purpose? Well don't be too shocked if all you do is destroy a quality heirloom in the process.
Go break a TOPS or something.
You can always buy one and do whatever you want with it, but it would still be a shame. For me, it is just so different, something made with love and pride by hand versus something made with love and pride which is water-jet cut into blanks....
You can always buy one and do whatever you want with it, but it would still be a shame. For me, it is just so different, something made with love and pride by hand versus something made with love and pride which is water-jet cut into blanks....
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