My First Historical Khukuri-Long leaf Victorian

Cool information.
Road trip sounds great. I'm sure they kept some crates of original Kukris around in Nepal.
When you say machine made, does that mean it was an automated hammer (had water powered once in Europe since many centuries) or do you mean that the blade was cut out of a thick sheet instead of forged?
Thank you.
 
I'm not sure Jens. Berk mentioned they may be fabricated from "blister and shear" steel earlier which is where they layered charcoal (carbon) and steel in big brick insulated vats and melted it down for days and then cooled for sometimes weeks. This may be where carbides come in? The steel would increase in weight and or volume up to around 1% which was assumed to be carbon. It was not homogeneous and they had to fold and roll it to get it homogeneous. I would think this is the point where they could roll it or form it then maybe machine forge it somehow. Still seems like they would have to go through this same process of enriching with carbon whether they hand made or machine made the final product. After they got a homogeneous steel the British and Indians would have to decide what to do with it. It seems they preferred to make muskets rather than Khukris and of course the Nepalis would make Khuks. The earlier articles Berkely and Karda posted are packed with more information than I have memory for so all this comes from there. Very interesting readings and i hope im not twisting it up too bad. The more ya know the more you realize you don't know!
 
I have two WWII vintage M43 kukris and side by side they are too different to have been die stamped. I'm sure there were power hammers used but they still appear hand made.
 
@berk incorrect history aside you know what i mean-- the nepali served the british after a brief war, and they got loads of sharps rifles from surplus of brits , ithought , because of the 2003 arsenal , but i guess they could have made all those rifles themselves? like ndog said more information than I can remember, i defer to experts :D
 
i guess they could have made all those rifles themselves?
With the exception of the Martini-Henry MkII and MkIV rifles and some SMLEs, almost all the thousands of muskets and rifles in the Nepal cache (including the so-called "Gurkha Sharps") were in fact made in Nepal by relatively crude, labor-intensive methods. The British did not want the Nepalese to have the latest weapons, so they made their own copies
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(or in some cases original Nepalese designs like the Gahendra rifle).
110k9qw.jpg
 
Interesting. Do you know if the M43's you have are made from the same manufacturer? I suppose there could be differences between manufacturers? Maybe they were not drop forging them at all? They could be machine rolled and hand cut and finished for all I know. Dont know if anyone has ever found a Khukri die?
I have two WWII vintage M43 kukris and side by side they are too different to have been die stamped. I'm sure there were power hammers used but they still appear hand made.
 
This looks like the repository where people are posting the scripts. Very interesting. You may have a really odd one? I will shark your photobucket with your permission if I can find it and try to help translate it. Aunti has helped in translating some past specimens i believe.
http://khukurilipi.blogspot.com/
Armory026_zps9aff572b.jpg

I see chandra 3 already. Batallion is there as well as weapon number and maybe some other characters. OK im on it! Verrry Khuuul!!! Oh its upside down.

The picture is not very clear but I think it reads (top to bottom)
Sri 3 cha ndra go na 4 | 2...!
Insanely impressive. Where did you find these may I ask?
 
OK Khul!! Thanks a million verpa! The "go" and "na" I couldn't find? The closest Battalion Name to that on the list of known are "Naya Gorakh" which would be "Shree Naya Gorakh Battalion 4" (na and go backwards though?). I have also discovered something interesting about my blade. It has had the Battalion script filed off and a new one added. You can see remnants of the old script under the new script. Verpa do you know what the left two characters mean.

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Notice the file marks between the yellow lines are running across the width of the blade where outside the yellow lines the original forge marks run the length of the blade. Someone changed the script. This is the part where the battalion is identified as well as the weapon issue number. Maybe it was reissued?

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This is a zoom at the right yellow line. Looks like remnants of a "3" and something unknown to me next to it. then the original sri 3 chandra to right.

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These are the first two characters on the left. the second character is secondary because it cuts over the remnants of another character (blue arrow). Red arrow is remnant script and notice how the metal was smeared over the script meaning that script was there before file marks. Most of the character is over the original forge marks which leads me to believe first character is secondary too. There was originally no script here therefore no file marks. All this is easier to see in person and is more obvious. What does all this mean? Heck if I know but my guess is they reissued these weapons and had to remark them as they were reissued. This one must have been issued twice during Rana's rein or "sri 3 chandra" was added later as well and who only knows when this was first issued and or made. WOW! any other ideas?
 
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Awesome pictures. What if instead of reissued the owner of the knife just got transferred to a new unit? In the army we would also keep our old uniform and just add new patches for example. He kept his knife and changed the name on it to its new Battalion Could be a possibility..
 
OK Khul!! Thanks a million verpa! The "go" and "na" I couldn't find? The closest Battalion Name to that on the list of known are "Naya Gorakh" which would be "Shree Naya Gorakh Battalion 4" (na and go backwards though?). I have also discovered something interesting about my blade. It has had the Battalion script filed off and a new one added. You can see remnants of the old script under the new script. Verpa do you know what the left two characters mean.

ea7fa789fc3d3515099aa69f68e8b40e

Notice the file marks between the yellow lines are running across the width of the blade where outside the yellow lines the original forge marks run the length of the blade. Someone changed the script. This is the part where the battalion is identified as well as the weapon issue number. Maybe it was reissued?

6c7f344bf22f42a686000df7a37d5733

This is a zoom at the right yellow line. Looks like remnants of a "3" and something unknown to me next to it. then the original sri 3 chandra to right.

033652537200adcdfd9fdf09485aa4ca

These are the first two characters on the left. the second character is secondary because it cuts over the remnants of another character (blue arrow). Red arrow is remnant script and notice how the metal was smeared over the script meaning that script was there before file marks. Most of the character is over the original forge marks which leads me to believe first character is secondary too. There was originally no script here therefore no file marks. All this is easier to see in person and is more obvious. What does all this mean? Heck if I know but my guess is they reissued these weapons and had to remark them as they were reissued. This one must have been issued twice during Rana's rein or "sri 3 chandra" was added later as well and who only knows when this was first issued and or made. WOW! any other ideas?

Too late at night for me to come up with an intelligent response. But I promise that I will look harder when I wake up. Stay tuned.
 
I think I found a sibling of yours :) (from IMA)
Has nothing new inscribed over old going on but otherwise identical (!) however there is an additional letter and a number and they are vertical.
Cant wait to upload some pictures later today and get your and Verpa's opinion.
 
So Khul! Cant wait to see it! Im still researching who Rai Jha might be. I don't see anything similar on the known list of Battalion or company. If figuring Rai may be similar location as Limbuwan and maybe find some area in the Limbuwan kingdom with a similar name but dont know? I should order one from AC and see what I get.:thumbup:
 
Here it is.

Its all the same (name and number) except for the vertically written "pa 26" towards the handle isn't it? (And the prime ministers name is in front on mine and in tha back on yours, but that isn't major)
What do you think the roof with the two lines on top of the ra stands for? a special way to pronounce it? Also the letter after the ra, on mine, looks the same like yours but its turned somehow? Maybe that gives another clue
on what it means and what battalion name it could be?
 
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Here it is.

Its all the same (name and number) except for the vertically written "pa 26" towards the handle isn't it? (And the prime ministers name is in front on mine and in tha back on yours, but that isn't major)
What do you think the roof with the two lines on top of the ra stands for? a special way to pronounce it? Also the letter after the ra, on mine, looks the same like yours but its turned somehow? Maybe that gives another clue
on what it means and what battalion name it could be?
sri 3 chandra ra ai (j,ja?) /64 vertical: ? 26 OK the ra,ai and maybe j? all together is raj or raja (wild arse guess)?
Ill try to find out the unknowns tonight. र=ra I think the two lines at top (diacritics) distinguish "ai" from "a" IIRC. Blade spine looks super clean! Hows the edge? Handle? Looks like AC and IMA are picking from two different kinds of piles?
No. dont think it can be raj or raja because of the "ai"??? And your right maybe that is a "pa" in the vertical?
"Help Verpra!!
 
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What is remarkable, after googling a lot on the last long leaf it seemed nobody ever found two matching inscriptions. We did now! Awesome ndoghouse, what were the odds? No matching inscriptions (except the prime ministers name) led some guys to believe that it might be individual's names and not the unit. It's unlikely that our two Kuks belonged to the same person (like the 2 Kuks swinging lady in resident evil) so therefore it's probably really the battalion name.

Ima and AC seem to have different crates.
Also Imas packaging is superior. They even had a bumber on the tip of the blade.
The handle is comparably nice long on the IMA but rattles ever so slightly. Might reglue it if swelling it up with oil doesn't help.
There is some pitting. Less in numbers than on my AC but slightly deeper. Blade shape is exactly like yours and that means thinner shape but thicker spine and longer than the AC. Edge has fresh looking grinding marks on it. If there wouldn't have been cosmoline on it and a few tiny nicks I would swear some guy sharpened it very recently.
More pics tonight.

edit.
pictures:

(the one closer to the ruler is the IMA
the other one is the AC)
 
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The AC one makes the IMA look more sirupati. AC has wider belly,deeper cho, and shorter handle. I think im going to get one from AC and see what i get? I want one with a shorter handle like yours. No telling what ill get though but there does seem to be a trend. OK I gotta wait on my HI chopper so im gonna get one now from AC. Nice pair Jens. I like them both! Maybe they were in battle together who knows? ok on order.
 
Cool. Hope you get a good one from AC. Hand selected I guess?

To your inscription.
Ra with two flags on top is pronounced rei (wife knows Hindi)
The letter after that she couldn't decipher. On mine she thought it could be a 7 but I don't think so since kuks have their numbers after the vertical line and not in front.
On your letter after the ra (rei) I think I see a ta with its roof missing. However it could also be a na (dot on top of the n in this table http://trekkingnepaltourism.blogspot.com/2012/09/nepali-scripts.html) but only if in addition to the missing roof a bottom curve got cut off as well. If it is ra na then there are a bunch of units it could refer to.
Shree Ranabhim Battalion
Shree Rana Sher Battalion
Shree Rana Shardul Battalion

However if its Ra Ta (which is slightly more likely) then it could refer to the Shree Tara Dal Battalion But then somebody mixed up the order of the two letters, which makes it less likely again.

I will ask a Nepali friend next time I'm in India (in ~6months). Maybe he can help.
 
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I don't think it is either a Ra or a Na. If your wife knows Hindi, she probably is way better than I am in reading these symbols. To me the only thing it remotely resembles is a half U (pronounced oooh). Run it by her once to see if my theory is well formed...
 
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