To cho or not to

J

jamaljahda

Joined
Mar 4, 2009
Messages
616
Hello I understand that the cho serves a historical and has a religious symbolic signifigance that continues on to this day. However I was just wondering is this he weak point of the khukri? I mean from the base it starts out at one width then advances to the cho which reduces the length some appr. .25 of an inch. Thinking if the wish was originally 1 inch or more and at the cho it is reduced by 25% when chopping the stress would affect this area he most. This is just a curiosity, being a owner of two khukris and planning to own another soon I just wondered. Would a really heavy strike cause the blade to fail at the cho whereas a blade without one might not break at that point because of the continuous run of the steel?
 
Great question!

I've never seen a khukuri fail at the cho. Has anyone else on the forum ever seen such a failure?
 
Seen it? No.

But it is a weak point. It isn't bad if the corners, particularly around the protrusion are rounded.

But even the "light" kukri are so overbuilt, I doubt it's a practical problem. The problem breakages are almost always due to an accident of getting water on the tang area and hardening it. That'll usually result in a clean break at the over hard area.
 
You know, I considered this exact point when I first got interested in khuks. The conclusion I came to was this:

If you look at the width and depth of the steel at the minimal point in the cho, the way it widens back to the spine, could I swing a piece of steel that size and hit with it strong enough to break it? Could I swing a 3/8th + thick piece of steel hard enough to break it? After I got my first khuk and looked at it closely, the answer was clearly no.

It bothered me no more after this.

Let alone the fact that the forging process aligns the grain of the steel fully along the bends.

Kev
 
It's extremely thin for a khukuri -- i believe it's 1/8". It's machete stock pressed out into a khukuri shape. And from what i hear, early batches of Condor khukuris (of which i bought) had bad heat treats.
 
As thick as these HI blades are, I have no lack of confidence in their strength. Though someone in the general forums had a Condor Khukri split at the cho...
 
Howard Wallace said:
For the benefit of those of us unfamiliar with the knife you speak of, in what way(s) does it differ from what you refer to as a real khukuri?
Click to expand...

Instead of many popular HI khukris who have squared spines and defined sweeps about 5/8ths of the way up the blade, the Condor Khukri has a general curved sweep at the spine, more similar to the M43. The handle is a full tang, or close to it, whereas many HI khukris are stick tang. It has three pins in the scales, which are walnut, grippy and sturdy, and well formed. The finish is some sort of polymer, very durable. It's made out of 1075 steel, which in its own right is a very capable steel for large beater blades, though I don't think it's quite as ideal as HI's 5160. The thickness is uniform throughout, and has a scandivex style zero grind, with a .125 inch spine. Most HI khukris are between 3/8ths and 5/8ths of an inch thick, 3-5 times thicker. They are drastically tapered to put the natural rotating axis near the handle, where the blade is used most efficiently by rotating the wrist instead of swinging the whole arm (the Condor Khukri is more mainstream in that it is designed for a full arm swing). Both are EXTREMELY good quality, high performance practical choppers. I'm very glad I have both.
 
I think I remember someone breaking a Kumar Kobra at the cho, but it was back when I started collecting in 2000.
 
Interesting read.

Many of us regard Gelbu as versatile khuk as it's light yet tough enough to take a beating.(Chitlangi is still very much too pretty a khuk to whack).

I was lucky to snatch one before Warty gets it- Pala rehandled 18" Gelbu Special.
I believed it was made with a 21" bare blade but Pala cut the rat tang short and punch 2 rivets through the tangs and handle.(As speculated by Mohd) and Auntie mentioned that the double rivet construction on Gelbu made it a very strong blade.

It became my jungle machete.

IMG_5005.jpg


HandleA.jpg
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top