Sucking The Soul Right Out Of An HI Blade

I never did understand the people who could have just a few beers.
But I think you just made sense.

Overreaction is kinda like me drinking too much beer. We're OK.

We talk in this forum. We live. Strange things happen. Some people get confused, some hurt, happy, funny, weepy, silent, still, moving, stagnant, you get the idea. Life happens here. We don't lock that down and khukuris do speak.
You know, I think Yangdu laughs a lot more than some of you realize. That's a good thing, this laughter. She told me once she likes the sound of mine.


munk
 
I can't see magic getting sucked out of an HI. I could, however, imagine the said HI getting something of a spooky aura if it had been used in a nefarious manner by a nefarious owner. This might be particular true if the following owner knows about the khuk's past history.

Bob
 
lefthandblack said:
I currently have four HI products. A 16.5" Chiruwa Ang Khola, a 20" Chitlangi and 2 12" Pen Knives, one a villager model.

All of these blades to me have their own personalities and they all have their own realms of usage. Each one actually sings in my hand as I use it, maybe I got lucky.
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G'day Lefthandblack.,,,,,I think you are pretty lucky........I have a kukri,an officer model weighs about 23 ounces and it "just feels right" it cuts great , has a 10mm edge and really bites deep into tree saplings. I have 23 kuhri all up incl antique vintage wwII an modern...have yet to buy an HI but it will be either a M43 or Berkley Spec 'dui chirra' I am really taken by the Kobras but one of those is a bit down the track when my grandson is neally 18 he likes the longer style blades.
I am sure , as Steve Ferg says that those [HI kuks}being offered for sale will "find the right home" maybe "down Under" in OZ
Joe
 
I agree that these HI blades are magic. No slight of hand, no tricks, just real magic. I like to think of myself as sane and rational, many of you might argue against this point, but i'll have you know htat 3 of personalities are lawyers;)
Anyway, blades do have different personalities, dare I say souls. I have some that when I pick them up they want to know where the work to be done is. I have some that pulse with an energy that thirsts for blood. I have some that when I pick them up they laugh at my youth and chuckle to themselves with all the answers I'm looking for, knowing that there is no shortcut to wisdom.

I have said before that my 12" Salyan is like my teddybear when I am sick. Just a couple of weeks ago I lay thrashing in my own sweat with the confused nightmares that only a 102 fever can bring. I don't what it is about the little Salyan, but keeping it close just made me feel better. Maybe it is because it reminds me of Uncle Bill and all the pain he went through. I mean, all I had was a touch of the flu...suck it up Steely. It might be amount of extra magic that went into this blade. This was from the first run in memory of Uncle Bill. Bura made these will a little extra love and probably a few tears. Two asprin, an hour of rest, and several terrible dreams later my Salyan had helped crack my fever from about 102 to 99.6. I know in my heart it was the Salyan. Asprin never works on me.
My wife laughs at me a little everytime she comes in to find me curled up with my little magic Salyan. "You take fighting off the flu pretty seriously don't you, hon?"

So, i might be certifiable thinking that my HI blades have magic and souls and personality, but I don't care. Some things are just true no matter how much you argue the reverse of it.

Jake
 
The first time I held an HI khuk, I was so stunned. It felt so ....real. Like there was a presence in the room.

I'm getting pretty whacko in my old age. I've actually asked Bill and Rusty for help during this last year.

This doesn't mean I have to go senile and get 39 cats, does it?






munk
 
Yes. Yes, it does.




--
Praying to genetic or spiritual ancestors is a long and honored tradition in many places in the world.
 
Darn, I was afraid of that. Next thing you're going to tell me is I'll eat catfood right out of the can, wear a robe all day and be constantly worried about the cat's welfare. This a natural precussor to Zombification?



munk
 
I think that the very things that bother some folks about HI products are the ones which give them their "soul." They are not "perfectly" executed; nor would I want them to be.

I live in a 150 year old house. Many (though not all) of the mouldings, windowsills etc. were hand-planed, and still show traces of the plane irons. Our hand trowelled walls have subtle variations; they catch and reflect light differently than drywall ...

I love wooden boats. The heart of the shipwright is in every fitted joint, in every caulked seam, in every planed curve and driven bronze screw, and whiff of pine-tar. There's no mass-producing a wooden boat - the marriage of the eye of the designer and the skills of the craftsmen brings them to life one by one.

And I love my HI knives. They honestly speak what they are - handmade products, showing the skills and refinement possible by craftsmen working primarily with hand tools. They murmur their names and histories in every hammer mark, every slight variation in line, every slight whorl (or even blemish) in the natural handles. They are collaborations - between those who went before, the kamis who make them, and me. And pick up their essence from each of us. The soul of my knives has grown, as they've picked up the polish and patina of use.

Any object develops "soul" the same way - through reflecting the people who've touched them. If you're lucky a machine-made object has the soul of the designer there from the start ... but you've felt the difference between an off-the-shelf set of new chisels, and those you've inherited from your Grandfather? There's life in every ding, every scratch. Life from every dovetail they cut, every mortice, every shaving taken from the wood. Maybe you've sat in a modern easy chair ... and also in a wing chair from the 1890s with hand-carved ball and claw feet? Whether house, or knife, or car, or whatever ... an object's soul grows with the patina - the evidence of use and human contact.

An HI knife has the great headstart of the kamis personality stamped and visible in the steel.

T.
 
Wonderful post.
I'm not alone afterall, in my insanity. If you're going to hear voices, the only thing that seperates you from psychotics is understanding to listen only to the good voices. Like a khukuri.




munk
 
it occurs to me that an HI kukri often has a life of its own, before it becomes a kukri. the great "whee" of life, on the road as it were.

first you have the truck springs. typically mercedes mmm? so that leaf spring got around. flexing and sucking up life's bumps... from germany (so host a german beer to your kukri!), and perhaps it picked up some stories.

then the handle material? buffalo? that's got a story. wood? which forest? who did that tree shade, was that the whisper of a cobra going by? a commando? perhaps the gentle sussuration of rain.

ah, the sheath. again, the buffalo. perhaps a different buffalo. here, we had itches and they were scratched. there, some tree bark to rub upon. perhaps the same tree a future handle to be? mm. then the scabbard wood. hey, more trees! alright. sunlight contained. such potential.

and don't forget that laha. the blood and sweet of trees, plus some extras.

then enter the kamis, each selecting their materials, fussing over them, making them, prayers are said, blessings for those past, and HI, and then us in the chain. perhaps a mercedes truck gave them a lift at one point, certainly the USPS. then more trees with the newspaper and triangular boxes, trees from other continents communings. then to your mailbox.

ah, where does the wheel take us as it turns :)

bladite
 
munk said:
So, Could a Bad Guy suck the Good Stuff out of a HI Khuk?

munk
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Munk your mind seems so troubled maybe if you let it go and quit taking cheap shots you would feel better. Yangdu made a change and moved on. Do you have it in you?
 
BigJim;
We are talking about the spirit in the blades. No one has taken a shot at you. That is called projection. I took a humouress look at a point that emerged earlier regarding the khukuries- in this way I turn something that was a disapointment to us here, and bring something good in it's stead.

That is all. You've spoken your mind about HI khuks. Isn't that enough for you? Was there something else you wanted? You are trolling now, looking for a confrontation where none was offered. Your bad manners and ill judgement are plain and continue unchecked. I'm reccomending you be banned from this forum and from BF as soon as I conclude this post.

Please do not persist and embarress yourself further. I suggest you leave now.


munk
 
I've reopened this thread. It is open because it was a good thread, constructive, and we needed it.

I closed it only because I was unwilling to watch a tit for tat meaningless exchange in what was one fine thread.

BigJim has indicated to the Supermods he is through with this issue. Let's leave that, and continue with our own very functional, but not always seemly, handcrafted, full of marks, LIVES.


munk
 
I am glad. This issue didn't need to turn into two locked threads and a banning. Also, it is this soul quality that makes these knives dear to us. I used to collect factory folders, and they look like saltines to me now. HI makes a great tool, ringing with something extra, and that is the reason most of us have begun to collect so many HI products, and have wound down collecting other knives. At least thats the case for me. So this is an important thread. Good call Munk.
 
I used to have a video that a fellow forumite gave me (my wife taped over it with a sitcom-ouch!) that showed kamis making these blades by hand: from selecting leaf-springs, to the finished blade. Even handle and scabbard construction. And it showed them making a grinding wheel by hand. That wheel was then powered by a man with a bicycle chain with two handles. I went to my little collection after watching it and held those blades with a new found respect--even awe.
 
munk said:
...BigJim has indicated to the Supermods he is through with this issue. ...

munk
Click to expand...

Good for him...but do the Supermods assume that we are done without his public apology to Yangdu? :thumbdn:

Pretty slick of him to drop one in the pool and then climb out...trolling at it's best.
 
Good for him...but do the Supermods assume that we are done without his public apology to Yangdu?

Pretty slick of him to drop one in the pool and then climb out...trolling at it's best>>>>>>>>>>>> Nasty


If this wasn't said I wouldn't be on earth, I'd be in an alternative universe.

If one is willing to speak what he knows of the Truth, he is also willing to recieve the best effort of his peers when it comes back to him and knocks him off his feet.


munk
 
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