The History of HI

foxjaw

foxjaw

Joined
Nov 19, 2001
Messages
317
I'm not qualified to do it. But I think it would be an interesting scholarly project for someone to do the History of Himalayan Imports from the begining. From Uncle Bill's joining the Peace Corps and on through the current proceedings of the forumites. Theres already lots of written material to go through in the forum archives. That could be a book in itself. :)
 
I would definitely be interested in this. Even if it was justa complilation of links to appropriate threads, but I think having it all organized and edited into one work would be even better. Sadly, I know I don't have the talent for this(learned it through dad editing and authoring several books).

I am good at reading though if someone else does the work. :)
 
I hope that someone would take up the cause. Hey wait I think Beoram is some sort of professor type, maybe he would do it :cool:
 
Foxjaw,

there are some things along the lines of an HI history here and there on the HI pages and on the FAQ site.

Some of the most relevant that come to mind are:

Reviving a Tradition (from the Khukuri FAQ)

Pokhara Sunrise and other stories [Khukuri FAQ]

Brief Bio of Kami Sherpa [HI pages - Bios]

Brief Bios of Bill & Yangdu Martino [HI pages - Bios]


...as for compiling a more complete HI history....this would take some time I think. For the most part the above links are Howard Wallace's work. Both 'Reviving a Tradition' and 'Pokhara Sunrise' are in the same form as in the old HI FAQ. I pulled some of the bits and pieces together for the HI Bios page, but most of that was things in the FAQ already, with some more info & photos culled from digging through HI forum archives.

A complete HI story might be difficult. I think the above links cover a lot of Uncle Bill's early days in Nepal and some of the beginnings of HI. And we do have some bio for Pala/Kami Sherpa and a little bit for some of the kamis. But for a real history, it would be nice to have more information from Burha and other kamis too. What I'm trying to say is that there must be several lifetimes of stories in HI.

But perhaps a more coherent story will evolve as the FAQ and other pages are edited, and added to, and re-arranged. But all of this is a lengthy process - I've mainly been just re-arranging information from the FAQ site, and that has taken a lot of time. I can't imagine how much time it took Howard to put up the FAQ in the first place.

--B.
 
I can't imagine how much time it took Howard to put up the FAQ in the first place.

A lot but Howard had motivation. Ask him about it sometime.
 
I was just looking through the archives and found this thread. Definitely worth a look, there's lots of interesting reads in the archives.
 
Originally posted by Roadrunner
I was just looking through the archives and found this thread. Definitely worth a look, there's lots of interesting reads in the archives.
Click to expand...

Roadrunner, thanks for bringing this thread back up. I now remember reading this sometime back when I first joined the forum. I believe this gave me the extra motivation to buy and collect as many of the Khukuris and products of HI , as I possibly could afford. The HI products and all that goes with it, are a time capsule . Plus, they are fun to use and play with and a damn good lasting tool.
 
You should put that thread from the archives up as a general post maybe a stiky one for a while so everyone can read it. Alot of new people like myself need to. There is so much info stored in the 100,000+ post here that sometimes it is hard to find the gems like this one. I have spent some a lot of time going through the archives and I haven't scratched the surface. Thanks to all involved.
 
I was just reading that over again; Uncle Bill, it seems that your prediction about the eventual extinction of HI may have been off the mark. How would you rate the current situation now, four years later? From the general tone of your posts at the time I get the feeling it was a rough period, but things seem to be looking up lately. I for one think that HI has become a force to be reckoned with, it certainly has one of the most loyal customer bases that I'm aware of.
 
Roadrunner-

it certainly has one of the most loyal customer bases that I'm aware of.

I just looked and my first post on the HI forum was on 7-18-03. Here today and 8 (yes EIGHT, HIKV struck hard) Khuks later I can say that other then some folders that it would take alot for me to buy another knife from some place else. Thanks Uncle Bill for all that you have done.
 
Dang Mark; eight in a little over a month?! It's taken me four years to get eight, and they're not even all standard HI models. I've still got interest in other knives, but I seem to spend most of my knife money on khuks. It's those insidious UBBB's, my willpower crumbles whenever I open one of those threads.
 
Yes, I thinik that an HI mission history should be a permanent thread at the top of the forum. Good idea ;)
 
Roadrunner
Three were gifts, so I try to use that as some kind of excuse. It is the power of the UBBB. There is no hope!:D
 
I found another thread in the Archives that I believe may be of some interest. http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=125421 . If you haven't been through the HI archive, you should really check it out sometime when the forums are slow. There are some really interesting threads in there, especially when looked at in hindsight. There was a thread near the very beginning in which Cliff Stamp and Cobalt discuss the merits of CPM 3V and several other new steels, which are now in common use. Cool stuff.
 
Is this forum ever slow? (except when bfc was down of course). I probably check bfc 20 times a day most days, if not more, and still seems very rare occasion that this forum doens't have a new post. Cept for nights I'm up REALLY late.
 
It was kind of slow this morning, I think we went about 3 hours without a new post. I got so frantic I started putting a hand-rubbed finish on my D2 Arclite. D2 is an absolute #*&%* to polish I'm finding.
 
To insure the survival and profitability of HI, I propose that the Nepal operation be terminated and the Kami's and their families set up shop in Nevada. They could live and work in some remote location and claim to be a religious cult. It would be a while before the government attacked and came to burn them out, during which time the Kami's would train undocumented workers from Mexico to actually do the work.

As more workers from Mexico settled in, the cult status could be modified to "non-profit community based business" which would be the recipient of grants and loans from the government instead of attacks by tanks and fire bombs. Bill and Yangdu would set up an intensive English learning program, so the Kamis could leave to take good paying jobs in Nevada's "entertainment" industry.

For their services, the Martinos would be entitled to a generous retirement package which would not only pay all required bribes for them to live in Nepal in "Tourist Style" but would also put them in a position to receive bribes, thus insuring a comfortable future - at least until The Revolution.
 
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