The Answer To Jimmy's Question

M

munk

Joined
Mar 22, 2002
Messages
15,742
Jimmy wanted to know how long it took the Kamis to make a Khuk. It doesn't hurt to hear it again, repeat, or to hear direct from Yangdu instead of Bill, either. No, that isn't right; I'm filtering the data just like Bill used to.

Yangdu says it take about a day to make a khuk. Once you get a metal peice hot enough to bend, they often break or crack right then, and you throw it away and start over. They discard a lot of metal. This is just for the blade; not for the tools, scabbard, or handle. Those things take time too.
And you can't hurry the hammering, either. If you push it too much, all it does it make more mistakes, the Kamis have to strike it right and with purpose and direction.

I can just see them coming in with a load of leaf springs. And someone has probably been bribed along the trail to let them through. Some days they can't walk to the shop because of Uprising trouble or bombs in the road. And then to pound and heat the steel, and have much of it crack anyway...well, that would be .....what? Life? Discourgment? Par for the course?

The Maoist trouble is bad right now and they can't get anything shipped out.

So, that's what's going on. You see a lot of Bura stuff, he works Sunup till God knows when, and the blades accumulate between shipping. Yangdu says every Bura marked blade has his hammer in there. Don't know how much, where, but he's been there to do his thing and get it right.



munk
 
I have seen some very hard working people in the third worlds, they are very grateful to be working, long hours day by day week by week are like a stroll in the park. Work don't come easy where they live and that's exactly what they have which is very much unlike ours. All work no play.
 
I think some of the confusion regarding Bura came after his surgery...for a short time, he was indeed "supervising" others' work. But once he was healed, he got back on the hammer.

I really wish I could get some help with converting this VCD video to streaming video....:mad:
 
Dan,
is that the video of the Kami making a khuk?
You need technical people to help?



munk
 
Yangdu says it take about a day to make a khuk. Once you get a metal peice hot enough to bend, they often break or crack right then, and you throw it away and start over. They discard a lot of metal. This is just for the blade; not for the tools, scabbard, or handle. Those things take time too.
And you can't hurry the hammering, either. If you push it too much, all it does it make more mistakes, the Kamis have to strike it right and with purpose and direction.

I can just see them coming in with a load of leaf springs. And someone has probably been bribed along the trail to let them through. Some days they can't walk to the shop because of Uprising trouble or bombs in the road. And then to pound and heat the steel, and have much of it crack anyway...well, that would be .....what? Life? Discourgment? Par for the course?
Click to expand...
Yes Munk .. Kamis are not rich .. each drop of their sweats means foods, cloths and shelters .. so .. they have to be very productive .. they have to maintain the standard quality of their workmanship as well .. in the mean time they have to design new models .. all these are very important for those Kamis to ensure that their products are up to the expectation of their customers .. they know that any failure in their works will give impact to their foods, cloths and shelters!

I still remember .. back before Y2K .. we bought HI Khuks from Uncle Bill without knowing who the Kamis are. Then we think it is best to know which Kami make which Khuk so that we can appreciate them more. Uncle Bill proceeded by implementing the marking of each blade with symbol that represent individual Kami. From then on we are more familiar with the workmanship of each individual Kami. I myself can roughly identify which of which is Bura's work or Kumar's work or Sonu's work from the workmanship shown in each Khuk.

I personally believed Bura can always produce couples of Khuks a day because he has assistants. Bura might just give the finishing touch to those Khuks and I still can acepts those Khuks as Bura's work!

OK Munk .. just my 2 cents opinion!
 
Thanks Munk. I don't understand why people are asking for this readily available information though. All of this has been on the website since I started reading it. I know for me I read the site 10 times a day waiting for my first khuk. Even now I go back and read the website sometimes. Lately there seems to be lots of questions and suggestions, and even accusations regarding information that has always been readily available. I don't understand it at all, but thanks for the thread anyway. Good read.
 
My question, if you had not previously read it, was how long it took to manufacture a current HI khukuri knife. There have been many places where approximate times have been offered, but I just wanted to see if I could get a more precise answer.

I made no accusations, and was honestly just looking for an updated answer.

Aproy, I don't know if you are accusing my question as being more than that, just a question, but if you are, your "assumptions" would be wrong,............way wrong.

And yes, as you said above, the answer was a "good read",..............was it not? That's the ultimate goal of my question(s). In other words, if you must know, my goal is to receive good information.

There was another thread posted recently by a fellow board member that sparked up some controversy. But,..... that was "his" questions, not "mine".
As for asking basic questions, I don't believe we need to start having people policing them on these boards, it simply would not be a positive thing. If there is something inappropriate, I'm sure "Yangdu" or the "Moderators" will act on it.

On another note, but somewhat related, I recently "asked" if the board (moderators and Yangdu) would consider adding a strong FAQ section to this board (more updated and with more questions being addressed than what is currently the FAQ section of the HI website). If my intentions were less than honorable, I would not have recommended such a thing, something that would actually benefit this forum.

I'm not afraid to say that I don't like you directly or indirectly pointing accusations my way. I would like "you" to please read your post carefully, and realize why I feel that you seem to be accusing me of something wrong.
You wrote "I don't understand it at all, but thanks for the thread anyway",...... and if that's the case, I would appreciate it if you could just email me with whatever you don't understand about "my" question(s), and I'll be more than happy to try and give you an answer :)

Sometimes what we write and read does not come through very well on a computer screen. I may be wrong about your intentions, in which case I humbly ask you to accept my apology :)

Thank you :)

Jimmy Jimenez
 
Jimmy,

My post was in no way intended as an attack on you, or your posts. Additionally I did not intend discourage any question from you, or a new forumite. These questions promote HI, and that makes me happy. Your question was innocent, that was obvious from the start. If I have ruffled your feathers I apologize.

In another thread, as you mentioned, these acusations and pointed questions I referred to came up. This question seemed to be prompted by that unseemly acusation, though innocently asked. I rechecked the website after that thread popped up, and didn't understand the acusations as the process is very adequately detailed on the website including pics. There is even some discourse about Bura being bossy and hard to work for, which to me means he is directing several men under himself.

So I guess I posted this in the wrong thread. Again my intention was not to upset you.
 
aproy1101 said:
I guess I posted this in the wrong thread. Again my intention was not to upset you.
Click to expand...

As I mentioned before, it just read to me as a personal attack. But, I also said that screen wording can oftentimes be taken the wrong way, which seems to be the case here ;)

All is good, and thanks for explaining :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top