Scrimshawed ivory officers kukri.

S

spiraltwista

Joined
Nov 29, 2002
Messages
3,229
Some of you guys may have seen this, but some havent.

Just before last christmas , I came across a little car boot type sale & normaly I just drive on buy, well anyway I had a bit of time on my hands so thought Id have a quick browse.

O wow, I must do that more often!


An Indian girl with a Northen accent sellin out of the back of a van, had this little beuty hanging up inside it, not laid out for sale though.

Anyway to cut to the chase, I am know the proud owner of this well looked after beuty! {The kukri not the girl. }

She found it amongst a suitcase of old clothes newspapers etc that had belonged to her grandfather.

He had been an officer in a Sikh regiment.

The blade had a very fine layer of solidified , possibly cooking oil? all over it.

It still has its original factory finnish underneath!

The handle is faultless scrimshawed elephant ivory, made for a fairly large hand!

Its a very serious piece of kit.

The rivets are hidden under plugs of Ivory & horn.

I realy like this one. It is so well made & rather unusual as well I think.
Anyway heres the pix!

Hope you like it.

Spiral

2005-12-04_161627_P1010315.jpg


2005-12-04_161644_P1010316.jpg


2005-12-04_161718_P1010317.jpg


2005-12-04_161738_P1010318.jpg
 
Some of the standard military models were sometimes decorated to attract attention at the bazars. Perhaps, that is what happened to this one; the quality of the decorations is not up to the quality of the knife.

n2s
 
Be nice to think that the owner decorated it over long nights spent on the North-West frontier though :)
 
Indeed N2S That was my reaction when I first studied it as well. I dont think the scrimshaw is the same quality as the knife & it certanly wasnt factory done.


Although very military in design its quality excedes that actualy , as you note. So I Dont think it was ever a standard issue, & has never cut wood or bone or even paperI would say. It is absouloutly mint, & we both know how rare that is with 60 year old kukri.

Dont think it ever saw a bazaar, thats more the bone handled junk.etc.

It would have been nice if it have been carved by a great western scrimshaw artist but India isnt famous for them.

I presume whoever presenterd it had it done, but truth to tell non of us will ever know for sure.

But its still an intresting part of the kukris history for me, I wish the girl had known more but as with so many kukris & knives we are left to deduce & wonder.

But For me that is part of the fascination.

Spiral
 
Its beautiful Spiral. I wish you knew more about it too. The blade looks phenomenal. Ivory too. MMMMM.
 
Very nice, Spiral.

I saw two peened tangs (?) in the pommel. How was that done? The construction of that pommel interests me.

Welcome to the forum!
 
Thanks guys, it is a nice looking kukri I think & feels realy good in the hand as well.

Steve the tang is slab sided {called chirawal in Nepali.} on a full tang, so they just left 2 projections on the end of the tang to dome over to hold the buttcap in place.

All mk.2 & mk.3 military kukris also use the same fitting.

Some of the traditional rat tail tangs are also split in 2 to hold a buttcap in this manner.

It helps prevent the buttcap becoming lose or rattling about if fixed in 2 places rather than one.

I think its a realy good design feature myself for that reason.


Spiral
 
That reminds me of the stories I,ve heard of vintage motorcycles found in barns . Thats a great find . One end to the other including the accessory knives its first class .
 
spiraltwista said:
Steve the tang is slab sided {called chirawal in Nepali.} on a full tang, so they just left 2 projections on the end of the tang to dome over to hold the buttcap in place.
Spiral
Click to expand...

That's very interesting. A full tang with two attachment points. I might give that a try on something I make. Didn't know that could be done.
 
Heres another couple of examples Steve, But on traditional but split rats tail tangs. {Although the top kukri it may just be a secondary pin or nail perhaps.}

kukributt3.jpg



kukributt4.jpg



Spiral
 
Beautiful find. When in the UK I always used to avoid jumbles, wayfarers and boot sales.
Silly me!!
 
Well normaly those sales do just have lion head tourist junk! :jerkit:

but theres always the random chance factor! ;) :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top