Modern materials Khukuri

wildmanh said:
If you want a Khukri with a handle made from modern composite/laminate handle materials like Micarta, g-10 and the like, I suggest buying a Blem with a cracked then replacing the handle. This way you have the best of both worlds.
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Good advice. I had a *blast* refinishing my KLVUK. It was almost like getting a 99% finished "kit", and getting to do the fun/easy part of making it personal, unique and pretty myself.
 
Welcome to the forum, but this is not really HI talk, so i'm moving it over to the Cantina. Lotta good advice here.
The traditional khuk has traversed every continent and come out fine. Like all things, if you learn how to use and take care of your tools, you'll be fine.

Good luck:)
 
Cold steel Gurkha kukri SK5 are still my favorite slicer and stabber, for around $150+ it comes with kydex sheath and kraton handle, can't go wrong with it. For all rounder pickup a KLVUK, you won't be disappointed, but remember it's more difficult to re-handle a rat tail tang then a full tang. Also horn handle are more impermissible to water then wood, but wood are way more comfortable and provide more grip (friction). The wood handle need to be dry up completely if it gets wet otherwise the wood will rot and metal tang will rust on the inside. I have been playing with the idea of dipping the whole handle in the 30 minutes + epoxy resin mix and let it soak through the wood and air harder, then it'll be sort of a micarta hybrid handle, waterproof and stronger. Not sure if it'll work but certainly seems logical.
 
peak said:
Cold steel Gurkha kukri SK5 are still my favorite slicer and stabber, for around $150+ it comes with kydex sheath and kraton handle, can't go wrong with it. For all rounder pickup a KLVUK, you won't be disappointed, but remember it's more difficult to re-handle a rat tail tang then a full tang. Also horn handle are more impermissible to water then wood, but wood are way more comfortable and provide more grip (friction). The wood handle need to be dry up completely if it gets wet otherwise the wood will rot and metal tang will rust on the inside. I have been playing with the idea of dipping the whole handle in the 30 minutes + epoxy resin mix and let it soak through the wood and air harder, then it'll be sort of a micarta hybrid handle, waterproof and stronger. Not sure if it'll work but certainly seems logical.
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I think for epoxy to permeate wood, you need to put it under pressure. If you have a pressure cooker though, that might just work. Not sure how the pressure cooker will fair though.
 
Shinook said:
Gleeful lust. They all gravitate to the same knife, my blem HI-BAS by Rajkumar with a satisal wood handle. They all do the same thing with it, "swing very slow and carefully at a piece of wood". I then laugh, take the BAS back and swing fast and hard into the same piece of wood. Then their eyes light up even more, and their love affair with my HI-BAS goes into overdrive. They start going to town on every piece of wood that I'll let them at. I laugh, and show them what my 18" Ganga Ram can do to wood. They are always stunned. But the strangest thing is that all do the same thing here as well. They start defending the performance of the "THEIR" Hi-BAS. They admit that the Ganga Ram does chop better, but they don't care and they want to use "THEIR" HI-BAS. Its hilarious, and they all do it.
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I found the Ganga Ram on the Himalayan Imports site, but what is a "HI-BAS"? I think you mean "British Army Service" on the store site, and "The British Army Service Model" on the main site. Correct?
 
The problem with a modenized khuk mostly is they are fairly expensive and the balance is not exactly right for chopping.

If you just want a machete like sort of thing then the modern ones are decent. But they aren't that good for chopping.

Mineral Mt Hatchet works makes a khuk but they dont' chop as well as the HI or most of the other Nepalese ones.
 
kookery said:
I found the Ganga Ram on the Himalayan Imports site, but what is a "HI-BAS"? I think you mean "British Army Service" on the store site, and "The British Army Service Model" on the main site. Correct?
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Yes, BAS = British Army Service
 
peak said:
I have been playing with the idea of dipping the whole handle in the 30 minutes + epoxy resin mix and let it soak through the wood and air harder, then it'll be sort of a micarta hybrid handle, waterproof and stronger. Not sure if it'll work but certainly seems logical.
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GoodStuff said:
I think for epoxy to permeate wood, you need to put it under pressure. If you have a pressure cooker though, that might just work. Not sure how the pressure cooker will fair though.
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He's right...you won't get much penetration without pressure. Ideally you would draw vacuum them pressure while using a very low viscosity resin. The resin would need to be like water. It would probably be less effort to just replace the handle with a piece of stabilized wood. If you want to keep the handle thats currently on it then make sure its quite dry and apply a coating of cyanoacrylate (superglue) it has a lower viscosity than most epoxides and it will be drawn into the wood slightly. But even them penetration is usually under 1/16".
 
This video is interesting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erc7f_CBc_8

Notice how the kukri handle causes it to rotate in his hands. He isn't able to use as much accurate force as he can with the modern handle in the Busse knife. That was unexpected, but now that I look at the Himalayan Imports kukris, it is obvious that they would have a problem with rotation of the grip. The shape of the kukri makes much more likely to rotate after a heavy strike with it because the off-center blade gives leverage to the rotation force. The modern handle on the Busse knife is blocky instead of round, but it also does not have an off-center blade. I would be curious to see how much difference there would be with 2 identical kukris, one with a traditional round handle, and one with a madern "chunky" handle.
 
kookery said:
This video is interesting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erc7f_CBc_8

Notice how the kukri handle causes it to rotate in his hands. He isn't able to use as much accurate force as he can with the modern handle in the Busse knife. That was unexpected, but now that I look at the Himalayan Imports kukris, it is obvious that they would have a problem with rotation of the grip. The shape of the kukri makes much more likely to rotate after a heavy strike with it because the off-center blade gives leverage to the rotation force. The modern handle on the Busse knife is blocky instead of round, but it also does not have an off-center blade. I would be curious to see how much difference there would be with 2 identical kukris, one with a traditional round handle, and one with a madern "chunky" handle.
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Ok, that was hands down some of the worst, and most dangerous chopping technique I have ever seen. Even the busse was rotating in his hands. I wouldn't take any advice from him.
 
Don't worry, he didn't give any advice. He just showed me what novice melee handling is like :)
 
Dirtbiker said:
Ok, that was hands down some of the worst, and most dangerous chopping technique I have ever seen. Even the busse was rotating in his hands. I wouldn't take any advice from him.
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I agree. It looks like he was trying to bludgeon the log to death with a club. I hate to think what his wrist, elbow and shoulder would feel like if he did that for an hour instead of just two minutes. With those thick gloves and how he was swinging, it's a wonder either knife didn't go flying out of his hand. Also, for what was supposed to be a comparison, he didn't seem to be counting the number of strokes.

I didn't care for the fact that he had the Busse trademark "INFI" emblazoned on his cap. That's like someone doing a comparison between two baseball teams while wearing a cap from one of the teams.

Apart from all that, the two knives did about equally well. Since the Busse would cost four or five times as much as the AK, which would be the better buy?
 
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davidf99 said:
Apart from all that, the two knives did about equally well. Since the Busse would cost four or five times as much as the AK, which would be the better buy?
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That much is obvious. That's why decided to take the advice I was getting in this discussion, and I bought the WWII from here:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1000346-Three-blems-for-10-12

I still might like a Busse Killa Zilla II, but once I get my WWII, I may not care anymore, especially if I figure out how to put a modern handle on it. I just don't need a ridiculously expensive knife, even if it really was worth the money. I just want one for some basic utility, and maybe slicing tomatoes, coconuts, and zombie skulls.
 
kookery said:
This video is interesting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erc7f_CBc_8

Notice how the kukri handle causes it to rotate in his hands. He isn't able to use as much accurate force as he can with the modern handle in the Busse knife. That was unexpected, but now that I look at the Himalayan Imports kukris, it is obvious that they would have a problem with rotation of the grip. The shape of the kukri makes much more likely to rotate after a heavy strike with it because the off-center blade gives leverage to the rotation force. The modern handle on the Busse knife is blocky instead of round, but it also does not have an off-center blade. I would be curious to see how much difference there would be with 2 identical kukris, one with a traditional round handle, and one with a madern "chunky" handle.
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That video is painful to watch. He managed to get poor performance out of two incredible knives. And he's lucky that didn't get hurt.

I don't know what you mean by "off-center blade". The HI Khukuri's blade is forward weighted, but it is very well balanced side to side. As long as you use the proper technique(there are many posts about this), they don't flop around like the video. A well made khukri is easy to hold onto, and easy to strike accurately. And with the proper technique, you don't have to swing as many times to be more effective than that guy in the video was with either knife.
 
He wasn't letting the knife do the work. That's why it's flopping around. By "off-center", I mean that it's curved downward from the linear center from pommel to tip on a straight blade.
 
kookery said:
He wasn't letting the knife do the work. That's why it's flopping around. By "off-center", I mean that it's curved downward from the linear center from pommel to tip on a straight blade.
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Yep, with a kuk you should let the mass of the blade make the chop. Get it up to speed, and old on, but don't meatfist it. You will see the wisdom of the big fat pommel when you get yours. A *snap* of your wrist makes the work easier, and that means a loose-ish grip....you'll see.

The handle kind of reminds me of how hard it is to drop a standard pint glass. Even when your hand gets tired and your grip slips, the ever widening handle will catch you.

And the big belly of the blade makes draw cuts powerful. Looking forward to hearing what you think after you play with the WW2 for a while!
 
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That's exactly why I've always wanted a kukri, since I was tiny kid. They looked so natural to me. In fact, I was mystified why everybody else thought they were the "weird" knives. To me, the straight blades looked awkward, especially for chopping. Later I noticed that the best axes have very curvy handles, and the same sort of dropping shape for how the axe blade meets the wood. The axe head itself is optimized for that. When I look at most tomahawks and hatchets, I just see really really crappy kukris. I think I'm going to be very happy with my WWII. I didn't plan on buying one so quickly, but I figured, why not? I felt like I was getting good advice, and my mother isn't telling me no anymore, so....I'm getting one!
 
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