- Joined
- Dec 28, 2003
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- 4,793
I was pulling this one out of storage today in anticipation of passing it on (to an existing buyer), and realized that I should post some pics of it, not only because it is a bit unique (well, all HI's are unique!), but because it belonged to Rusty.
When Rusty walked west in March of 2005, Mamav (Gin) and Yangdu worked their tails off organizing Rusty's large collection for sale on the Exchange here, for Rusty's wife Mary.
This knife was in Panel 5 of the original sale thread Gin put up, and was described as "Sanu Hanshee, very rare."
The pics are long gone from the sale, but this was the thread: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...e-of-Rusty-Slate-s-collection?highlight=rusty
I always thought of it as an M-43, but from what little I know guess that M-43's are simply a hanshee variant.
What is interesting about this knife are two things:
1) Rusty did a great job reducing the diameter of the handle, and he also indented the bolster on the left side of the handle for his right thumb to rest in. I gather Rusty had small hands, but I have very large hands and the thing still feels great. He followed up the grip reduction to the satisal handle with a Tru-oil finish which has held up well.
2) This knife is rare not only in that it was made by Sanu (Kami mark was a Cross) who was pretty much before my time here, but that at 17.5" it is only 24 oz. The only knives I know of that feel this lively are generally Tora fighters, and I know Simon Hengle who is an authority on those types of khukuris would approve of how this handles. This is a very strong chiruwa tang knife, and could serve as a light chopper, but IMO it's really meant to be a very fast slicer and dicer.
For comparison purposes I took some pics next to a Vim M-43, which is nearly perfectly executed. I picked the Vim because it is also exactly 17.5", but a beefier 31 oz.
Rusty put a good edge on it, which I refined a bit with a slack belt grinder, and it is a razor, one of the sharpest HI's I've seen.
Have two sets of pics so will add them here in separate posts. In this set picture E is really the important one, as it shows the indent on the left side of the bolster:
When Rusty walked west in March of 2005, Mamav (Gin) and Yangdu worked their tails off organizing Rusty's large collection for sale on the Exchange here, for Rusty's wife Mary.
This knife was in Panel 5 of the original sale thread Gin put up, and was described as "Sanu Hanshee, very rare."
The pics are long gone from the sale, but this was the thread: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...e-of-Rusty-Slate-s-collection?highlight=rusty
I always thought of it as an M-43, but from what little I know guess that M-43's are simply a hanshee variant.
What is interesting about this knife are two things:
1) Rusty did a great job reducing the diameter of the handle, and he also indented the bolster on the left side of the handle for his right thumb to rest in. I gather Rusty had small hands, but I have very large hands and the thing still feels great. He followed up the grip reduction to the satisal handle with a Tru-oil finish which has held up well.
2) This knife is rare not only in that it was made by Sanu (Kami mark was a Cross) who was pretty much before my time here, but that at 17.5" it is only 24 oz. The only knives I know of that feel this lively are generally Tora fighters, and I know Simon Hengle who is an authority on those types of khukuris would approve of how this handles. This is a very strong chiruwa tang knife, and could serve as a light chopper, but IMO it's really meant to be a very fast slicer and dicer.
For comparison purposes I took some pics next to a Vim M-43, which is nearly perfectly executed. I picked the Vim because it is also exactly 17.5", but a beefier 31 oz.
Rusty put a good edge on it, which I refined a bit with a slack belt grinder, and it is a razor, one of the sharpest HI's I've seen.
Have two sets of pics so will add them here in separate posts. In this set picture E is really the important one, as it shows the indent on the left side of the bolster:
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(on whom I just blew all my accumulated good Karma for the day! 
)
