- Joined
- Mar 5, 1999
- Messages
- 34,096
I was going to post this as a reply in the "Is this an HI?" thread but decided it was worth a thread of its own. There's a lot of newbies who really don't know why and how HI got started so here's the story in a nutshell. Better get it down and done while the getting is good.
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When we started trying to sell khukuris in 1988 nothing was HI and nothing was marked except for Kancha Kamis' khukuris and a few village khukuris marked with a sign or initial of the maker. We bought from anybody who had a good, solid, nice looking khukuri they wanted to sell. Pala was the main buyer but had help from relatives who understood what to look for in a khukuri. Probably Jeevan, Pala's oldest son, was next best and busiest buyer. Jeevan was the one who discovered shop 1 and he and Pala made the deal with them to manufacture khukuris to our specifications. I remember the owner, T. B., simply couldn't believe we were willing to pay the price we did for top notch khukuris. And, if the khukuris were expedited and delivered ahead of schedule and met specs we paid a 10% bonus. It was the talk of SE Nepal.
We got a lot of village khukuris then and to tell you the truth I miss them. Old Kancha Kami made maybe 20 khukuris for us before he got too old and sick to work. And we used to make deals with Newari shops right in Kathmandu who made junk khukuris for tourist consumption. We told them what we wanted and paid a price high enough to get what we wanted. They were a far cry from the tourist junkers and the Newaris thought we were nuts but they made them anyway. Money talks, especially when speaking to Newaris. No product line, every khukuri different, with the only common denominator being they were damned good khukuris and were guaranteed for life.
As I've mentioned, the biggest problem was getting the khukuris in front of potential buyers. I advertised in Knives Illustrated, Fighting Knives, and Blade on a regular basis and would run an occasional ad in some sporting and hunting mags when I could afford it. Ads were running around $300 each so on a month when all mags were hitting the shelves our ad cost would be about a thousand bucks. And in those early years sales might run maybe 15 or 20 thousand -- 8 or 10 thousand bucks in ads to generate 15 or 20 thousand sales. I hated like hell to charge $200 for a knife I could sell for $75 if I had no ad costs but it was either charge the price or quit and although it wasn't much we were pumping a little money into the Nepal economy and it was going to folks who needed it most so I couldn't quit.
The second biggest problem we had was overcoming the poor reputation of the khukuri. Others ahead of me had sold junk khukuris from India as "the real thing" which, of course, they were not. Even supplied papers with the khukuris which showed the khukuris were "the real thing." But the papers didn't keep the handles from falling off, the blades from folding, the scabbards from falling apart. They were junkers made by the thousands by Windlass Steel down in Dehra Dun, India and sold for maybe three bucks and all the papers in the world would not change that. At first a lot of people thought this is what we were selling but slowly the word got around that we were selling a horse of a different color -- or perhaps better put a khukuri of different steel. It took a good while, maybe 3 or 4 years, but finally we developed a reputation for selling the best khukuris in the world which were rated by experts who know as a world class knife.
I'd gone to Nepal as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1980 -- $75 per month -- for two reasons. Most important reason was to study and to participate in Buddhism first hand. Second reason was to try to do something to help the poor of Nepal in return for getting the knowledge I needed and wanted. A failing kidney ended my contract with the Peace Corps and I had to return to the US for surgery but when I left I vowed that I'd return and complete what I started and I did. If you haven't observed by now I'm a real hardhead.
I learned and particapted in Buddhism and converted to the faith. In trying to repay Nepal for what it had done for me I tried to sell products here in the US that were made in Nepal -- I think I tried to sell every art and craft they had available and nothing was working. Then I ran that first khukuri ad in Knives Illustrated and sold one khukuri -- just enough to pay for the ad. Ran it again and sold two khukuris. Then Greg Walker who was editor of Fighting Knives saw my ad, ordered and paid for a khukuri, and was impressed enough with it to do an article on them. That article sold enough khukuris to allow me to buy ads in Fighting Knives and Blade. And we were off and running.
Then I got on the internet and we started BirGorkha and everything changed and has evolved into what you see today. Prices went down, quality went up, and things got pretty much where I wanted them. And now that Yangdu has got up to speed or pretty much up to speed on the computer and net HI is here to stay for awhile -- unless Bura decides to start making counterfeit handles for all the khukuris!
And that's the story.
========================================================
When we started trying to sell khukuris in 1988 nothing was HI and nothing was marked except for Kancha Kamis' khukuris and a few village khukuris marked with a sign or initial of the maker. We bought from anybody who had a good, solid, nice looking khukuri they wanted to sell. Pala was the main buyer but had help from relatives who understood what to look for in a khukuri. Probably Jeevan, Pala's oldest son, was next best and busiest buyer. Jeevan was the one who discovered shop 1 and he and Pala made the deal with them to manufacture khukuris to our specifications. I remember the owner, T. B., simply couldn't believe we were willing to pay the price we did for top notch khukuris. And, if the khukuris were expedited and delivered ahead of schedule and met specs we paid a 10% bonus. It was the talk of SE Nepal.
We got a lot of village khukuris then and to tell you the truth I miss them. Old Kancha Kami made maybe 20 khukuris for us before he got too old and sick to work. And we used to make deals with Newari shops right in Kathmandu who made junk khukuris for tourist consumption. We told them what we wanted and paid a price high enough to get what we wanted. They were a far cry from the tourist junkers and the Newaris thought we were nuts but they made them anyway. Money talks, especially when speaking to Newaris. No product line, every khukuri different, with the only common denominator being they were damned good khukuris and were guaranteed for life.
As I've mentioned, the biggest problem was getting the khukuris in front of potential buyers. I advertised in Knives Illustrated, Fighting Knives, and Blade on a regular basis and would run an occasional ad in some sporting and hunting mags when I could afford it. Ads were running around $300 each so on a month when all mags were hitting the shelves our ad cost would be about a thousand bucks. And in those early years sales might run maybe 15 or 20 thousand -- 8 or 10 thousand bucks in ads to generate 15 or 20 thousand sales. I hated like hell to charge $200 for a knife I could sell for $75 if I had no ad costs but it was either charge the price or quit and although it wasn't much we were pumping a little money into the Nepal economy and it was going to folks who needed it most so I couldn't quit.
The second biggest problem we had was overcoming the poor reputation of the khukuri. Others ahead of me had sold junk khukuris from India as "the real thing" which, of course, they were not. Even supplied papers with the khukuris which showed the khukuris were "the real thing." But the papers didn't keep the handles from falling off, the blades from folding, the scabbards from falling apart. They were junkers made by the thousands by Windlass Steel down in Dehra Dun, India and sold for maybe three bucks and all the papers in the world would not change that. At first a lot of people thought this is what we were selling but slowly the word got around that we were selling a horse of a different color -- or perhaps better put a khukuri of different steel. It took a good while, maybe 3 or 4 years, but finally we developed a reputation for selling the best khukuris in the world which were rated by experts who know as a world class knife.
I'd gone to Nepal as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1980 -- $75 per month -- for two reasons. Most important reason was to study and to participate in Buddhism first hand. Second reason was to try to do something to help the poor of Nepal in return for getting the knowledge I needed and wanted. A failing kidney ended my contract with the Peace Corps and I had to return to the US for surgery but when I left I vowed that I'd return and complete what I started and I did. If you haven't observed by now I'm a real hardhead.
I learned and particapted in Buddhism and converted to the faith. In trying to repay Nepal for what it had done for me I tried to sell products here in the US that were made in Nepal -- I think I tried to sell every art and craft they had available and nothing was working. Then I ran that first khukuri ad in Knives Illustrated and sold one khukuri -- just enough to pay for the ad. Ran it again and sold two khukuris. Then Greg Walker who was editor of Fighting Knives saw my ad, ordered and paid for a khukuri, and was impressed enough with it to do an article on them. That article sold enough khukuris to allow me to buy ads in Fighting Knives and Blade. And we were off and running.
Then I got on the internet and we started BirGorkha and everything changed and has evolved into what you see today. Prices went down, quality went up, and things got pretty much where I wanted them. And now that Yangdu has got up to speed or pretty much up to speed on the computer and net HI is here to stay for awhile -- unless Bura decides to start making counterfeit handles for all the khukuris!
And that's the story.
