Ouch!!! My khuk just bit me...

C

chris22

Joined
Oct 29, 1999
Messages
156
Now Harry don't get mad. We all get bit once in a while. I was playing with one of my toys tonight. You know how it is. First I pulled it out and just looked at it and carried it around for a while. Then I noticed that she could use a little polishing so I whipped out some sandpaper. After that I decided to burnish her. I don't know why, but I just love the sound of the chakma steeling the edge. I then oiled her up and proceeded to put her in the scabbard, or so I thought. I wasn't paying attention when I was doing it and I missed the scabbard opening. Instead I nicked my index finger. At first I didn't believe it. I've been bitten lots of times by knives, but this was the first time by one of my khukuris. I realized that it really happened though when I saw the blood. Out comes the trusty Band-Aids. So what do you ask is the point of this long winded story? Well I wanted to tell it for two reasons. First, I wanted to remind everybody that you can just as easily cut yourself sheathing your khukuri as you can unsheathing it, so be careful. Second, I just wanted to thank everybody who has posted tips on how to use the chakma. If I hadn't learned how to burnish my khukuris they would have been duller than they are now, and that bite would have been a lot more painful. So please learn from my mistake. Keep your khukuris sharp and always be careful when using them.

Christian
 
Amen....and with that I appoint you as another deputy HI Khukuri Range Officer and charge you with the responsibility to spread the word about khukuri safety to others.

wink.gif


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Harry
HI Khukuri Range Safety Officer
 
I bled a significant amount because of one of mine this weekend (although not from the end you would expect). I decided the time had come to put my newest to work. I bought one of those 15" Villagers with the full tang. I like the matte finish on it. It was a great deal for %49.95. Anyway, I decided to head out and start chopping all the tall woody weeks, brush, and small trees that have sprouted up all over the property. It did a very, very good job. I was amazed at how much stuff I could cut through with just a few strokes. I was chopping off all the heavy spiny weeds by swinging them along and ground level and cutting them off cleanly. I chopped up lots of small trees and then I decided to go after some limbs on big trees. There were drooping limbs all over the place (some with big thorns on them). After I figured out the technique I was chopping away happily. I found some dead tree limbs that were so dead that I could snap them off. One big one was hanging straight down almost touching the ground. I pulled on it and it looked like it would snap in the middle. I'm pulling and pulling and the whole stupid branch snapped off and somehow popped straight down and hit me in the head. Off went the hat and sunglasses. I was kind of stunned for a second and it made my nose hurt but no blood. I shook it off and headed out to work on a tree out by the barn.

As I was walking out there I was checking out the knife. Before I used it I had taken a file to the buttcap. It had stuck out on all sides. I filed it down to be even with the wood. Now I noticed that the buttcap was twisting slightly and that was causing the top and bottom edges to protrude. I twisted it back in place and thought "future epoxy job" but figured I could chop a little more. I started whacking on a big live limb. It was probably over 3" but less than 4". As I'm chopping I start feeling the buttcap digging into my hand. I tried to shift my grip further up to get away from it but each swing dug in a little more. I was determined to get finished with that limb before I quit. Finally it gave way and I stopped and looked at my hand. The bottom rear was all covered with blood. When I wiped it off there were five or six deep scratches where the buttcap had swung by. Each one is a couple inches long. The buttcap had blood all over it as well. Guess I should have listened to the pain receptors but no real harm done. Lots of hydrogen peroxide was poured on it. Now I just have to get the blood off the handle and figure out how to permanently fix that buttcap.

Great knife and well worth the money!

Gregg
 
Guys I respect your various ways of (additional) blessings to your khukuris! Hope you get well soon. I'd be an advocate of you, who saved us from hurt-that-could-happen with your own blood!


Here's one knife "proberb" I heard from wise people who I had a luck to be acquainted.
"Be more careful proportional to the time since you unsheath the knife", especially when you're honing the knife as it gets sharpest when finishing.


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(T_T) ...crying
\(^o^)/ ...cheerful
(ToT) ...crying
Mizutani Satoshi
 
Gregg, quite a while back I remember reading a thread in which Yvsa discussed an effective way to permanently fix buttcaps, but I don't remember exactly what he suggested. Perhaps you can do an archive search, or maybe ask Yvsa directly.

 
My contribution to this thread:

I was talking w/ a friend of mine on a phone last night and, being a 23 yr old guy who's kinda restless from sitting in the office all day, I decided to take swings in the air with my sirupati while talking, to work off some excess energy. It was going great for the 1st 20 minutes or so, then the sirupati caught on the phone line and the next thing I know the phone went dead. I tried to see if the sirupati had yanked the cord out from the phone jack, and to my dismay(and eventual delight at the blade's sharpness) the cord has been completely severed. Needless to say, my friend was astonished at my dumbness and the blade's keeness.

And now I need a new phone :-/

J
 
Judging from this thread and a couple of other recent ones, I'm starting to think that each new khuk should come with some kind of warning. Something to the effect that HI khukuris may be harmful to both your physical well-being and your immediate surroundings!
smile.gif

 
That does it! Everyone who has replied on this thread is now a Deputy HI Khukuri Range Safety Officer!

wink.gif


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Harry
HI Khukuri Range Safety Officer
 
Harry, you certainly have a thankless and burdensome responsibility -- that of protecting a bunch of grown men from carelessly mutilating themselves and others with weird, curvy knives. (I can just imagine the stories you'll tell your grandkids one day!) Oh well, burden though it may be, someone has to rise to the occasion, right!? However, I want you to know that we khuk knuts, HIKV sufferers all, thank you for your selfless dedication to safeguarding our collective welfare and safety!
biggrin.gif


P.S. If you're able to make the Florida get-together, I'll be among the first to buy you a brew to show my gratitude!
 
My Khukuris are very shy types ... so far they just lick my fingers and not a single bite yet!

NEPAL H
biggrin.gif
!
 
Another proverb: "My memory is good, but my forgetter is better".
 
Hi all.

Ya know, my khukris are actually the only knives that I have that I haven't blessed with my blood. There's just something about a 20", 2 lb. blade that makes me subconciously want to keep it away from my limbs
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. All of my smaller knives (REKATs, spydies and such) have tasted blood and let me know that they can be as dangerous as a big blade.

Dave
 
It's a very steep learning curve, that's for sure. I think it needs to happen. I'm going to admit to my biggest sin, lets just say 'femoral artery-vs-0.5mm'. Long time ago, one of my first jobs in a mail room. I decided to open a package in my lap, because I was too lazy to put it up on the counter. I used a utility knife... I'm so lucky to be alive, have kids and be able to walk.
David

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"Old too soon, smart too late"

Uncle Bill M, 2000
 
I may be wrong, but I think that there are essentially two types of khuk knuts in the world -- those who have accidentally cut themselves with their khuks and those who are eventually gonna!
 
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