- Joined
- Mar 14, 2000
- Messages
- 893
Just thought you'd all appreciate this story...
I got back from Honolulu this week to find that the 18" WWII model I'd ordered had come in. Note that this particular khukuri had been discounted for damage -- I guess that's what Bill Oji-chan deemed the teeny, tiny little crack in the scabbard that I could barely see. I also got a colorful, pretty topi to go with it! Yay!
So a good friend came over yesterday, asked if he could see my "machete", and picked up the new khuk, going, "I bet that I could break this." Now he's a really sweet guy, but always gives me grief about the amount of knives I buy. So, since I am kind of tired of his commentary, and since I hadn't yet tested out this khukuri, I thought I'd let him try it out himself.
We walked up into the woods and, after clearing a bunch of blackberry vines, finally settled on a tough branch about as big around as a big man's thigh. Making sure that I was a good distance away just in case he lost control of the blade, and that he was being careful, as I don't think I could have carried him back to my apartment in case he accidentally cut off his leg or something, I let him start chopping.
Now keep in mind that while I haven't seen even the slightest sign of wear on my other khukuri, he is 6'4", 245, and I'm, well, not, so I was curious to see if he could actually do anything to it. So I let him hack away at the tree until he got tired. He'd gotten through about half of it, and expressed surprise that the worst he'd managed to do was give the khukuri a dirty, sticky blade. He said that he couldn't have swung it harder without losing control of the blade.
It was kind of funny, since he was apparently under the impression that he could get the entire blade to snap off at the cho if he hit it against a log a couple of times.
I got back from Honolulu this week to find that the 18" WWII model I'd ordered had come in. Note that this particular khukuri had been discounted for damage -- I guess that's what Bill Oji-chan deemed the teeny, tiny little crack in the scabbard that I could barely see. I also got a colorful, pretty topi to go with it! Yay!
So a good friend came over yesterday, asked if he could see my "machete", and picked up the new khuk, going, "I bet that I could break this." Now he's a really sweet guy, but always gives me grief about the amount of knives I buy. So, since I am kind of tired of his commentary, and since I hadn't yet tested out this khukuri, I thought I'd let him try it out himself.
We walked up into the woods and, after clearing a bunch of blackberry vines, finally settled on a tough branch about as big around as a big man's thigh. Making sure that I was a good distance away just in case he lost control of the blade, and that he was being careful, as I don't think I could have carried him back to my apartment in case he accidentally cut off his leg or something, I let him start chopping.
Now keep in mind that while I haven't seen even the slightest sign of wear on my other khukuri, he is 6'4", 245, and I'm, well, not, so I was curious to see if he could actually do anything to it. So I let him hack away at the tree until he got tired. He'd gotten through about half of it, and expressed surprise that the worst he'd managed to do was give the khukuri a dirty, sticky blade. He said that he couldn't have swung it harder without losing control of the blade.
It was kind of funny, since he was apparently under the impression that he could get the entire blade to snap off at the cho if he hit it against a log a couple of times.
