On the sizes of hands

Howard Wallace

Howard Wallace

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Kami Sherpa,

Many HI customers end up rounding off the buttcap of their khukuris because it hurts their hand when chopping. I have done this to my 15" Ang Khola. I found that this operation was not necessary with my 21" villager, as the handle is slightly larger, and the buttcap does not poke my hand.

I think that this may be due to differences in the average sizes of hands in Nepal and America. Handle size may be one factor that accounts for the great popularity of the 18" AK in recent months. Do you think it would be advisable to increase the length of the handle on the 15" models, if it could be done without sacrificing balance?
 
Namaste Pala,

If possible, I would also like to see the longer handle that Howard referenced. At about 5 3/4", the handle on my 18" WWII is just about perfect for my medium size hands.

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Cheers,

--+Brian+--

 
While I too made mention of a hand-size glitch, the "upper pommel tip in the heel of palm" can be solved pretty easily - and solved EXACTLY to my hands.

Which adds up to: "don't change anything" where that's concerned - we can customize as needed.

What Howard is talking about is different, expanding the whole grip on "smaller" pieces. I can't comment on that, but it sounds reasonable.

But where the pommel layout is concerned, don't sweat it.

Jim
 
Then there's guys like Rusty and myself who are perfectly comfortable with a 'normal' grip.
Sounds like a special order "Anglo" khukuri may be needed.

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JP
 
Kami and Yangdu are right here. Kami asked if you would be willing to sacrifice some blade length for handle length. If you are willing to do this he can make the handles a half inch or 3/4 inch longer with no problem.

Uncle Bill
 
Greetings,
Sounds like a plan to me. More grip space is certainly needed, for safty if for no other reason.
Dan
 
Maybe we need a regular and big handle for the 15 inches. A mix to give customers choice. Thoughts on this?

Uncle Bill
 
In order to give Kami the well-considered reply he deserves, I'm going to wait a few hours until I can get some khukuris in my hands before commenting on the handle-blade trade off.

The idea of two sizes is a good one. How it is implemented is more tricky.

[This message has been edited by Howard Wallace (edited 10 September 1999).]
 
Kami Sherpa,

I’m sitting at home now with my 15” AK in front of me. This knife and I have had some fun times, and been through a lot together now. I have filed the buttcap so it does not hurt my hand. It is like an old friend, and I don’t think I would replace it with a newer model.

But if I found myself in the situation of getting another 15” AK, I believe the extended handle would be good. I find that the small sharpened section of the blade before the curve is quite useful, and I wouldn’t want that section to be reduced very much to make room for more handle. There is an unsharpened area before the cho that could be shortened in order to make room for the larger handle though. I think this might be the optimal solution.
 
That doesn`t make sense.The kamis can make a blade any length they want, and do.A 20" can be 22 3/4".Or 19", they don`t go much shorter than spec.,but they often come out longer.

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I asked Kami about this and he said it would be no problem to make some handles a bit longer than others on models in the 15 inch range. He cautioned against trying to get handles bigger on the 12 inch models saying we would end up with a non khukuri of 6 inch handle and six inch blade.

He will start the variety size handle on 15 inch models next call to Nepal.

Uncle Bill
 
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