Say Bill, When you go to Nepal can you ...

Howard Wallace

Howard Wallace

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Bill,

When you go to Nepal can you get pictures and biographical information on the HI kamis? Yangdu might be able to do this more effectively than you, due to her familiarity with the language.

Some information that might be of interest:

Year of birth
Place of birth
Favored khukuri style
How did you become a kami? Who taught you? How long has your family been doing this?
Why are you the best kami in Nepal?
wink.gif

Any good stories, philosophy of blademaking, or other information they would like to share.

If you question each of them about how we can identify the blades they made, I’ll bet they’ll get the idea about marking the blades. I think some groundwork has been laid, with the exchange of pictures, etc., for the kami’s to begin to understand that we are interested in them as people. If you could come back with pictures of each kami’s “mark” that would be great!

I think it would be interesting to hear the kamis’ reactions to a printed copy of the kami portion of the FAQ. I know they can’t read it, but they can see their pictures and you could tell them that anyone with a computer could see those same pictures and read about them. They may be among Nepal’s more famous citizens.
 
Uncle Bill, I think Howard's suggestion is a great idea. It would certainly make buying, and owning, a khukuri a more personal experience.
 
Great!

I have heard a couple of interesting suggestions on the forum recently that may bear consideration by the HI kamis and sarkis. Perhaps you could bring these ideas to their attention when you visit with them.

Cliff mentioned drilling a drain hole in his sheaths. This seems like a good idea. Perhaps the sarkis could consider ways of leaving a hole in the tip for drainage.

Yvsa mentioned chamfering the edges of the horn handles. I've seen old horn-handled (not HI) khukuris where the horn has shrunk and pulled away from the butcap. If Yvsa's solution does indeed mitigate this problem it may be worth the kamis' consideration.
 
Bill,

Another request.

When you go to Nepal, would you get a map, or several maps, and locate the regions where different khukuri styles originate? I haven’t been able to locate all of the various village names. If we could get outlined regions of origin for each style that would be great. You might be able to start some interesting arguments amongst the kamis also.
 
:
DAYUM! Thanks Howard!!!
I had forgotten about this.Maybe I can do a hurry up job before Uncle and the family leaves for Nepal.

Would just the butt cap end work Uncle Bill as that's all I do it on?

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>>>>---¥vsa---->®

If you mix milk of magnesia with vodka and orange juice do you get a phillips screwdriver?

Khukuri FAQ


 
Great ideas! I too would be most interested to see where these kamis are from and what style they favor.
Howard's FAQ will eventually become 'the book' so the more direct information, the better.
Bill, dhanyabad in advance for all the work that lays ahead of you above and beyond HI...

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JP
 
I'm going to try my best to get all the info on kamis, sarkis, and other shop people that I can along with pix.

Last journey to Nepal the xray machine erased all my pix! I'm going to try to get them all developed in Nepal just to be safe this time.

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Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
Khukuri FAQ

 
Concerning the drainage holes, most sheaths that have them are open ended. I did this with my 20" AK last winter sometime. None of my khukuris quite reach the bottom of the scabbards and thus there is a small amount you can cut off and not have the blade pointing out.

-Cliff
 
After due consideration the sarkis think that putting holes in the scabbard is not a good idea. They think this should be left up to customer discretion and maybe they are right.

I can see the mail now: My scabbard has holes in it!

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Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
Khukuri FAQ

 
Uncle Bill,

Is there any way that you can pick me up a 20" Village Chainpuri or have Gelbu keep his eyes open for one. I want to get one, but last time you tried to open a thread to ask who wanted one not enough people signed up.

Christian
 
Bill,
You may want to try one of the new digital cameras that can download in 640x480 pixel JPEG format directly from camera to computer. Olympus and Fuji both make $300.00 1.3 mega-pixel digi-cameras that use smartmedia cards. In 640x489 mode you can store a ton of pix's on a 4meg smart card. Just a thought. Then again, buying cameras means not buying khukuris. We can't have that now!( as I am listening to the wise words of the great minstrel-philosopher "Meatloaf" - "There ain't no Coupe DeVille hiding in the bottom of a Crackerjack box"). By the way, can you find out the status of old Nara? He would get a kick out of someone in the USA asking about his well being, I am sure.
Good days and painless dentistry,
Leo
 
I'll be getting some Chainpuris in March. I'll put out the word when I'm in Nepal.

I have a Kodak 210 dc but I'm not taking it on the journey. I have a 35mm that I'm taking and will leave it in Nepal. Gelbu and helpers destoryed the last 35mm I left 8 or 9 yers back so I've got to get them something else to destroy.

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Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
Khukuri FAQ

 
Bill;
If you put your film in your luggage, you most likely will find it to be damaged. Have your camera, and film hand checked. The new luggage X-ray machines are stong enough to wipe out ASA 400 film. If you send it down the belt at several locations, the result will be near the same.Buy the film in Nepal and have it developed there if possible. If this is not possible, hand checking is your best choice. Oh and while your there, could you bring me back a.............................

Have a safe trip
Floyd
 
Another option to explore is to check around Kathmandu for any bargains in film. I know that in some cases one may wind up with expired stuff, but I think there would be places where one could pick up good quality film for reasonable prices.

Harry
 
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