Stupid Questions

Hi Bill,

Just got back from vacation in Maine and found the 15" AK in my office. Too bad my timing is off. Would have loved to test it out this past week.

Well, the AK is beautifully made and I am sure will hold up as many here have attested to. (I know I am making uderstatements.)

Stupid question #1. I didn't expect to get the two small knives with the AK but love them as bonuses. Clearly they were intended to accompany the AK as the sheath has places for them. Is there a tradition associated with them and khukuris, or is this just what HI does?

Stupid question #2. One of the small knives is sharpen and the other is not. Why?

TIA,

sing
 
Hi sing:

The little knife is called a karda and the blunt edged tool, a burnisher for the big blade is called a chakma.

Yes, they are traditional.

And, your questions are not stupid but sensible questions for a newbie to the world of HI khukuris.

Uncle Bill

[This message has been edited by Bill Martino (edited 23 April 1999).]
 
Sing, the sharpened one is called a karda. kind of a pocketknife. The unshearpened one is a burnisher or steel called a chakma. It's used to literally push the edge back into sharpness by moving the Khukuri's edge steel back into place without removing any of the edge's material, thus extending the life of the knife. If the new AK needs sharpening on a stone, do it, then finish it off with the chakma, and continue to use the chakma to touch the edge up periodically while working, and you can delay reshapening a long time.

(( I knew it, Bill posted just before me. Look at the Burnisher, Karda and Chakma, and Sharpener threads recently, Sing. They'll fill you in even more. Some HI models based on earlier styles "Gangola" have several tools turning the scabbard into an earlier version of a Swiss Army Knife. ))

[This message has been edited by Rusty (edited 23 April 1999).]
 
S

sing

Joined
Jan 31, 1999
Messages
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Bill/Rusty.

THanks!!! Good thing I didn't get right to sharpening the chakma. Boy, I would really feel stupid then...
smile.gif


I'll check out the threads.

sing
 
Sing: don't feel stupid yet. Wait til your wife finds 8 or 10 khukuris and your mind goes out to lunch just when you need to explain why one or two just wouldn't do!
Hint: the explanation that they are like coat hangers and multiply when nobody is looking does NOT have a good track record with spouses.
 
SING, the chakma was also used to strike a piece of flint that was once carried in a little pocket attached to the back of the scabbard. The little pocket would contain some dried weeds, etc to be used as tinder to start fires in the Nepal's damp hill country. How's that Uncle Bill?

------------------
JP
 
JP,

COOOOL! I should attach a compass and make a special pocket for line and hooks. I'll be all set for the BIG WOODS... NOT!
wink.gif


Really, it's a great idea and I wouldn't be surprised it that were true.

Rusty, my wife knows I ordered the AK. She hasn't seen it yet. Maybe I should order another so she thinks it's a set...
smile.gif


sing
 
You did fine, John. And, sing, you'll probably not believe this but I do have customers who order in sets.

Uncle Bill
 
SING, you should order 5 more and tell your better half that AKs are like really good steak knives and come as a set.

------------------
JP
 
Now, y'all have me worried that I might pick up the HI khukurie disease...

Actually, I probably already caught it. Without having used the 15" AK, I am already wondering for the 18" feels like....

HELP!

sing
 
Himalayan Imports Khukuri Virus (HIKV) seems to have already advanced in your case to Khukuriphilia, the first of three levels of Khukuriholism. Obsessive thinking has now set in. Sneaking of new Khukuris into the house, followed by repetitive desires to withdraw from family and friends so you can fondle them without getting caught is the second stage. You begin making excuses for wearing multiple bandaids. That leads to Terminal Compulsive buying of two or more at a time to protect your supply. Irrational fears of having a Khukuri enroute when a UPS strike occurs, or having a Khukuri lost in the mail will indicate that you have reached stage three.

It is terminal.
 
Bill, if RUSTYs description sounds like something a social worker would say, does that qualify HIKV a 'social disease'?

------------------
JP
 
Just observations from a professional point of view. You realize, of course, that this is purely clinical knowlege ... not experiential. I myself can control it. Why, I've consistently limited myself to one or maybe two a week ( well, there was that week I got three, but that doesn't count because... ) and have not reached the stage where "one is too many and a thousand is never enough".

John, the politically correct term for the condition is CTD: Carrier ( or sometimes Computer ) Transmitted Disease, rather than STD: Socially Transmitted Disease. In practical terms, the DSM4 ( Diagnositic and Statistical Manual version 4 ) lists them as being very similar on all three axes. Many suspect that they are the same disease, albeit differentialted symptomatologically. In either case, interventions are contraindicated due to considerations of the extreme hazard to the intervenor, and concommitantly high morbidity rate. This is also known as the "When they pry it from my cold dead fingers" syndrome.

[This message has been edited by Rusty (edited 25 April 1999).]

[This message has been edited by Rusty (edited 25 April 1999).]
 
Sing, you would like the 18 inch Ang Khola. It is not as unwieldy as the 20 incher(actually 22 incher) and it chops a lot better than the 15 incher, yet is easy to handle. The grip size is Ideal for my hands. Any bigger and I cannot twirl it easily. It is exactly in between the 15 and the 20 in thickness and it is exactly!!! 18 inches long. I took out a few limbs of a friends tree with single strikes. These limbs were very thick and all in attendance were very impressed.
 
Jeesh, and I thought STD was a sexually transmitted disease. Not that I've ever had any experience with such misfortune. Now that Cobalt has corrupted Sing with mention of the 18" AK, I must ask Rusty something. When we speak of an 18" AK, we are talking of a 20% increase in overall length versus the 15" AK Sing now owns. I'm concerned as to whether the similarity along all three axes will remain in a state of near equilibrium, or, shudder, might a standard deviation develop, leading to advanced entropy of one, or both, AKs? I don't want to start a panic, but what does the DSM4 say about this?
 
I knew a girl named "Slippery Slope" in Olongapo long ago. The Flight Surgeon said SHE knew either knew a lot about STDs, or gave them as gifts. Can't remember which.

------------------
JP
 
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