The best yet? Nearly...

T

Tom Holt

Joined
Dec 30, 1999
Messages
475
Nearly, but not quite; the 20" village sirupati is still (IHMO) the best khuk I've had from HI. But the 20" village blem that arrived today definitely wins the silver medal.

Blade geometry is as near as makes no odds perfect for a medium-length working khuk; it weighs 2.5lb but feels faster and lighter in the hand than many lighter blades. Center of percussion is 4" back from the tip, so none of the momentum of the cut is wasted; used one-handed, it outchops two-handers like the King Kobra, Machaera and 25" sirupati in oak gatepost, and holds an edge pretty well. The handle shape is perfect for my small hands - the only beef I have with regular HI khuks is that the handles are too thick for me to hold onto - and long enough that I can just about get both hands on it for really serious chopping.

The little sirupati maintains its place as my number 1 favorite because of its exceptional handspeed, balance and quality of material & temper(I've only had to sharpen it once, and that was after cutting 16ga sheet steel...) The new villager runs it a very close second; it's a superb knife by any standards.

The very minor faults in the handle were cured by 5 minutes work and half a tube of epoxy. The forging flaws in the blade are trivial and hardly visible, thanks to a high quality final grind.

Total cost; $65 for the khuk, $35 for shipping, and $60 (that's right; sixty dollars) UK taxes - $160 all in, and a real bargain at the price.

Once again the quality of an HI village khuk has taken my breath away. This line has got to represent the best value for money in heavy duty knives anywhere in the world.
 
How does a country get away with nearly 100% tax on an item. Besides the leftist govt.& gun ban, the ungodly taxes would make me want to come to this side of the pond.
 
B Shipley wrote -

"Besides the leftist govt.& gun ban, the ungodly taxes would make me want to come to this side of the pond."

How does gasoline at over six bucks a gallon grab you? Not to mention 17.5% sales tax on everything except food and books. That's without starting on income and local taxes, the so-called 'National Insurance' tax, 85% excise on gasoline, booze & smokes, and a whole list of other taxes while you're alive; 60% inheritance tax when you die, just in case you'd managed to squirrel anything away for your kids.

And what do we get for our taxes? A vast army of bureaucrats, more hidden surveillance cameras per capita than any other country in the world, the phasing out of trial by jury, no legal right to self defence, soaring crime, people dying every day because of health care waiting lists, the economy in ruins, businesses driven into bankruptcy every day by taxes and red tape, unrestricted phone & communications tapping by the police, endemic racism on a scale you Americans simply couldn't begin to believe, a government and national leader who make Clinton and the Democrats look honest in comparison...

The UK is finished. If there was any way I could join you guys on your side of the pond, you wouldn't see me for dust.
 
Tom: Shades of George Orwell's 1984 and Big Brother. Methinks you need a good revolution over there to get things straightened out.

I believe it was Thomas Jefferson who stated words to the effect that a good democracy needs a revolution every 20 years to work properly.

Just my opinion.



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Harry

Toujours l'audacite!
 
Kozak, you said, "I believe it was Thomas Jefferson who stated words to the effect that a good democracy needs a revolution every 20 years to work properly."

I'm not sure if Jefferson said that, but I know Chairman Mao said something very similar: "A revolution must be renewed with every generation!" He said this to open the Cultural Revolution, which began ~20 years after the founding of communist China.

It's because of things like this that I view talk of "revolution" with a jaundiced eye.
 
One more time, I still can barely believe that the people who think they should control everyone else are in such a hurry. Ten more years, and everyone outside the nursing homes will have been raised and taught only newthink. They'll win by default as the only people around will have been taught to be civilized. But then the elitists probably can't conceive of any right thinking person disagreeing with them so they may as well get the dangerous old coots ( the ones who have actually read and consider the Constitution and Bill of Rights a social contract ) put away before they contaminate children with their neanderthal ideas. Such as their right to govern coming from the consent of the governed.

Oh well, I'm too addlepated to understand that though making the governing elite fear having to answer for their actions helps create a more civilised government, we want a more civilized SOCIETY, not a more civilized GOVERNMENT. How can our representatives do a really swell job if they are afraid that their people might hang or shoot them?

OK, Rant button lock off now.
 
Rusty, a civilized society is nice, but when the government increases the bureacratic red tape by which they attempt to govern every second of our lives, then something has to give, in order to restore a balance.

Ruel, a revolution doesn't have to be violent, rather, the public needs to remind government now and then not to encroach on personal freedoms in a manner shown as fait accompli. How well it does that, without resorting to physical violence will be key to how that society advances.

However, I digress. Lets get the discussion back to our favourite subject: khukuris!

Harry

[This message has been edited by Kozak (edited 05-03-2000).]
 
OK back to Khukuris
Tom what do you think your next buy will be?

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Ray
 
Tom,

How did you happen on to cutting 16 Ga steel with your khukuri, how did the edge do, also did you use it like a chisel?

By the way 16 GA is about 0.0625" thick. I am surprised you reported it as 16 GA and not some metric measurement.

Will
 
No.

Generally I only chop wood and the odd nail (in the wood), and wire (also by accident).

When I loan them out to relatives I have seen them chop up stuff using a gravel drive way as a chopping block and wire. They would have been used on steel to, if who ever was doing the chopping knew it could be done.

Will
 
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