Sanu "BT Special" -- Pix & one only.

Bill Martino

Bill Martino

Joined
Mar 5, 1999
Messages
34,096
Here is something Sanu made and he calls it the "BT Special." The knife is a replica of one found in the National Museum which was carried by Bhimsen Thapa who they tell me was one of the early Gorkhas and quite a fierce warrior -- so they tell me. All I can say is if a five foot four inch fellow carried a knife like this into battle and used it successfully he must have been a hell of a guy.

The knife looks to me like a hybrid Bowie/Khukuri but whatever it is Sanu did a very decent job on it. 20 inches overall and about 3 pounds -- lot of knife. 3/8 thick and 3 inches wide at the belly. Sharp top and bottom. Amazingly it feels pretty good in the hand. Guard is there to stay -- about 4x1.5x.5 and nicely executed. Nice scrollwork and inlay. Unique handle with carving. What wood it is I'm not sure -- seems a little too red and dense for saatisal but I'm not woodchuck. There's a small crack -- narrow and about 1.5 inches long at the "bulge" which may fade away with some oil. Worst case is a little epoxy with some matching wood dust to make it go away.

Karda and chakma are mini khukuris and very well done with steel bolsters and nice handles matching big one.

Scabbard is typical excellent work by village sarki in new leather.

We'll deliver this one of a kind to your door for $250. For collectors of one of a kinders it's well worth it.

Call or email.
 

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Yow! What's the time frame for original?

3 lbs! Maybe the design put on a little weight at BirGhorka? Whole package does look great.
 
I RECKON LOOKS GREAT
it reminds me of pens new pen knife??? if you took the top sharp edge away. yep just pasted em side by side almost identical well ill be.:)
 
Looks a bit like the UBE's granddaddy. An A$$-kicking one at that. you're right Fir, 3lbs= wow! That mussa been one tough guy.
 
My GRS is 3 lbs...enough to imagine carrying it around in the mountains looking for a fight...Must have been some armor used at this time?
 
Yeah, I have about a foot on this Bhimsen Thapa guy and I wouldn't want to haul that thing around for very long. That guy must have been one tough customer. Really unique design and great execution however.
 
When I go out to the National Museum and look at some of the weapons these little guys used it is very difficult for me to grasp the picture. Those guys were really small by our standards and the weapons are really big by our standards. When I try to develop the mental image of this little guy with this huge knife going after a customer it's almost comical -- but I'll bet it wouldn't be comical if you were the customer. These were the same little guys who a couple of hundred years ago fought the Brits to a standstill even though they were outnumbered 3 or 4 to 1.
 
That's probably why the British assimilated them into their armed forces.
If you can't beat 'em maybe they can beat the tar out of someone else for you instead.

I always root for the Borg BTW!
 
I wouldn't want to be on the recieving end of that...I don't care how big the other guy was.

Nice pic btw. Plain back ground allows the eye to rest on the knives.
 
Roger, gotta watch the old goat better. You walked right into that one.
 
If I only had some 200 year old Gorkhas on the forum this knife would have been gone in seconds.
 
If I only had some 200 year old Gorkhas on the forum this knife would have been gone in seconds.
Click to expand...

How about a 28-year old wanna-be who just got a new job? :o

Email on the way, Uncle Bill...
 
Hmmm; now my Hotmail seems to be on the blink. I'll send another as soon as it's back up. :grumpy:

While we're waiting, here's a point for discussion:

This Bhimsen Thapa "khukuri" looks somewhat like the economy-size Ram Daos shown in certain recent Indian paintings of Kali. Vide:

kali.jpg
ra03.jpg


Notice that, unlike full-size Ram Daos, the tangs and hilts of these smaller versions (like the BT) extend from the middle of the blade, rather than from the spine.

The question I put to the forum, then, is whether Bhimsen may have been using a battlefield version of a Ram Dao. Opinions?
 
Get that email working. I have bills to pay and money in my pocket to pay then with! So far.
 
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