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So this arrived in the mail today. It was billed as a vintage Indian Gurkha kukri, though I knew that wasn't accurate from the start as the pictures make it look more like a jambiya or a khanjar. I still can't figure out what it is, but it's interesting, if not the highest quality. Might make a good starting point for a similar blade but with better quality. The blade is not sharp at all, and there's gunk on it as you will see from the pictures. It balances an inch out on the blade, and the handle is pretty small for my hands. You can't see it all that well in the photos, but there's also that verdigris stuff on the guard, and the bolster seems to be something plated over brass.

So I'm wondering what the heck this is, and if I'll be doing any kind of damage if I clean it up and sharpen it.







 
Scara - I don't think it's a khukuri, in any way. I don't have enough knowledge to even suggest what it really is though.
 
I'd just call it a khandjar. I'm not 100% sure but I believe the khandjar form originated in India and spread from there to the Islamic world
 
-ditto-

sharpen both edges, these were commonly (tho not exclusively) used point down or forward. slashing & hooking with the inside ofm the curve.
cf354852-d4cf-4232-a18b-fffacca6d30b-2060x1236.jpg
 
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That, sir, is a reverse-grip knife, like Kronck said. Khanjar will do-it looks like some of the Sikh kirpans i've seen.
 
Held point-down as in Kronck's photo it looks like a giant raptor claw. Could do a lot of damage for a small knife. It might have the same functionality as a double-edged kerambit, only more so.

If you do sharpen the blade, I would leave a flat area in front of the guard, to allow hooking a finger around the guard for that up-close-and-personal touch.

It occurs to me that only in the HI forum would this be considered a small knife. :)
 
Right, kirpan was the other possible type of knife. I knew I forget something. As for the reverse grip, that was my thought too, but the sheath is oriented poorly for that. It has a flimsy belt loop on the wrong side for that, and the sheath is also decorated on one side only. The sheath may be a later addition, or it was meant for a lefty. And the shape of the handle does preclude a thumb on pommel reverse grip, though it does work for more of an icepick reverse grip.

Kronck, I've seen that style before, but this knife is only sharp (such as it is) on one edge, and it's the wrong edge for a point forward style.
 
I worked for a woman who grew up in the M. E., and had seen Omanis fight with Jambiya-she said the were both reverse grip, convex edge out and using a lot of circular strikes
(This came up because I was doing a littke silat with my cqc8 while waiting for someone, and she said that's what it reminded her of-so I spent the next fifteen minutes asking questions lol)
 
blue lander said:
Those are jambiyas and they just use them for dancing at weddings and whatnot
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I once took a course in Arabic. I didn't do well, but one thing I remember to this day was the professor talking about living in Yemen. He mentioned how anytime someone gave offense it was expected that the offended party would draw knife and act like they were going to attack. Then the offender would draw as well and do the same, and then there friend's would hold the two of them back. Thus honor was satisfied because the offended party had showed they were willing to do something about the offense, and the offender had shown that he was willing to defend his position. In some cases though it would become a real fight and not just a ceremonial show of fighting, which is half ceremonial and half real intent to fight.

And JW, it is funny how us seekers of knowledge will immediately move to get that knowledge from those who have it. Also funny how similar techniques show up across the board, which becomes especially funny to me when one system or art gets held up as the best ever, but other arts evolved to be very, very similar yet have absolutely no causal link between the two.
 
My Thai trio arrive todayIMG_0214.jpg

They're all pretty nice and quite sturdy. The one with the long wooden hilt, which I believe is for splitting rattan or wood carving, has some writing and an anchor on the blade but the rest are blank
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The one with the welded on hilt is a nice size. I might wrap the hilt in paracord or something.

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The big one is actually pretty hefty. It's much heavier than I expected. Thick, too.

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[video=youtube;axKYvygczLk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axKYvygczLk[/video]

This guy is making a scabbard for a golok and he uses a long handled knife similar to mine to dig out a channel for the knife as well as to shave the wood down. Unfortunately they don't show a clear shot of it, but you can see him use it to shape the scabbard at the 8:22 mark. He holds the knife steady with one hand and moves the wood across it with the other. At the 4:04 mark you can see him using it to to carve out space for the knife blade.

And is it just me or does he have a peg leg?

[video=youtube;V6F5J1DHnMo?t=2m35s]https://youtu.be/V6F5J1DHnMo?t=2m35s[/video]

This guy's making a parang sheath and uses a somewhat different looking blade to dig out the channel at the 2:36 mark, but it's the same principle I guess.
 
looks like he missed his target at some point, luckily he was skilful enough to replace his then missing appendage. i note what appears to be a band of tire tube by his knee area to hold it on.
 
I've been playing around with the woodcarving knife and trying to replicate these guys technique. You stick the hilt in the crook of your arm and hold the blade in your hand, and instead of moving the blade across the wood, you move the wood across the blade. I haven't got the hang of it yet but I can see how it would be effective . It probably puts less stress on your hands and wrists
 
So I keep getting errors when I try to post in this thread, but if you see this it means it worked. The other night I noticed that the last inch and a half or so of the khanjar is sharpened. I also went over it with a set of sharpening stones, and it sharpened up a little, but certainly not shaving sharp. I also think that it was never properly hardened. There were stretches where I felt the extra-coarse stone biting into the metal like a file. It's also been interesting learning how to cut with such a radically curved blade. It's quite different from anything I'm used to, since I've mostly used straight or mildly curved blades, or I've used the kukri which is a chopper.
 
I can't speak for this individual knife, but many khanjars/jambiyas were sharpened by whacking the edge with a hammer to flatten and thin the edge out. It only has to be hard enough to to penetrate a man's clothes and tender vittles after all
 
blue lander said:
I can't speak for this individual knife, but many khanjars/jambiyas were sharpened by whacking the edge with a hammer to flatten and thin the edge out. It only has to be hard enough to to penetrate a man's clothes and tender vittles after all
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Well, it can certainly do that with the tip when held tip forward instead of tip back. It's just a little funny, it actually cuts better with the barely sharpened back edge than with the front. All you do is whip it in like a claw and it penetrates pretty well. Though it does seem to cut paper well if I let the blade move in an arc as I bring it down the paper. It starts out with a pretty clean cut that abruptly turns into tearing the paper nearby instead of cutting it. I did some research on blade curves and cutting and found that moving the blade in an arc while moving the hand in a related direction is necessary for these really curved blades. I hope I made sense there. I'm running off of very little sleep and hoping to make it to tonight so I can sleep well instead of further screwing up my body clock.
 
Just one this little guy

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The seller doesn't say where it's from but I assume Thailand or thereabouts. Maybe it's Hmong? There's markings towards the hilt but I can't make them out from the picture. Blade is 10 inches. The seller says the sheath is wood covered in some sort of fabric
 
blue lander said:
Just one this little guy

View attachment 564235

The seller doesn't say where it's from but I assume Thailand or thereabouts. Maybe it's Hmong? There's markings towards the hilt but I can't make them out from the picture. Blade is 10 inches. The seller says the sheath is wood covered in some sort of fabric
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I'm thinking Thai. Or some kind of golok, like the one at the bottom (Perak, Malaysia):

perak-golok.jpg
 
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