Ultimate non habaki ! on antique WW1.

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spiraltwista

Joined
Nov 29, 2002
Messages
3,229
Heres my ultimate in non habaki bolster on a very nice old ek chirra kuk, It was a bring back by .

William .R. GEDDES in 1916 probably belonged to a 2/7 Gurkha rifles unit that he fought on combined opps with in, you guessed it Iraq. :rolleyes:

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I managed to trace records of for his family last week. :) Includin whearabouts of his grave. :(

Rank: Lance Corporal
Regiment: Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment)
Unit Text: 10th Bn.
Date of Death: 24/06/1917
Service No: L/11329

Who was presumably killed at Ypres or surronding area, given the cemetry location & death date.

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Hope you like it! ;)
Spiral
 
Hi Folks!
Glad you like it!

Brantoken I cant see a visible weld on the bolster, there is no weld in the thin spine fullers, & maybe some visible laha.

The line against the blade is a filed projection of the bolster, sort of a .5 mm lip, that is usualy on a bolster, just much smaller.
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I have kuks with integral,welded,brazed , wrapped or just freefloating bolsters , but realy cant tell how this one is done. Perhaps it is welded as the metal to metal fit is very tight. at top & base & filed smooth?

It is 2 piece bolster , & the bolster pieces have slighty different steel colour from spine,

spiraltwista



But wouldnt welding mare the visible razor thin line between bolster & spine?

I would like to know how this one was done! Welding experts? engineers? any ideas?

Spiral
 
Spiral,

I forgot to ask you about the previous soldier who cared for this......pretty interesting provenance to say the least. The Royal West Kent Regiment....that would be a local regiment formation, correct? A horse rearing with the regimental slogan underneath would be the correct regiment? I need to study up more on pre WW II UK insignias.

Cheers,
Steve
 
Very pretty shape! :) Very interesting history as well.

Spiral, can you post a pic of (or describe) the bolster on the edge side? That might help us better to continue our reckless speculations about how it is affixed. :D
 
Love that single wide fuller design, curve of blade and handle also mas kool.

Thanks fer sharin! Me and Nasty gots some oldie brit models on the way from Ivan C...will hafta post pix when I can.

Keith
 
Hi Folks!
Large photo for your comment machete!...
http://www.toratoratora.co.uk/forum/uploads/ ;) :rolleyes: :D

Steve, Yep thats the the RWK badge! They are often known as "The Buffs", Hence the immortal expresion, "Steady the Buffs"
shouted by Brit.officers during enemy charges when the were waiting till they saw the whites of thier eyes, before opening fire!

Ferrous, Good one! I liked the look of Ivans wood handled one, but not so impresed with the bone, It would be nice to see good pix though,

Cheers,
Spiral
 
Hi Danny,
As a Iraq battlefield pickup, I bet she has seen a Turk or an Iraqi or two. Bill Geddes brought back a couple of those long Turk bayonets as well.

He was definatly a front line man! twice busted for striking officers, but both times made back up to lance corpral within 6 months!

Must have been good at old fashioned man managment in the trenches! :D

The slight twist in it you find in the majority of antique military kukris either in the blade & handle or just handle, They made them for right handers! ;)

They only seemed to get symetrical around late WW2!

But Sssshhh dont tell anyone, there better the old way! ;) :D

Spiral
 
Thanks for the pic spiral- I now have 5/8s of a clue, instead of only half of one. :confused: :p :eek:

In the last pic, it looks like the fit of the bolster to the wood is tighter than the fit of the bolster to the blade. Is this the case?

I am ignorant of all the manufacturing methods available then, but I think we can rule out the "gluing on" of a two-piece bolster, and if there is a mechanical fastener, it is invisible. The only thing that keeps me from saying 'of course its welded' is the gapping around what should be the joint.

There. That is my %62.5 of two cents worth of reckless speculation. ;)
 
That is a very interesting kukri that I would be worth a close look.

"The slight twist in it you find in the majority of antique military kukris either in the blade & handle or just handle, They made them for right handers!"
Not true, so I assume the smilie with the wink sums up that sentance.
 
Hi Machete,
I would say the metal to metal fit is the closest & the wood perhaps enters into the bolster & has laha in there as well. If I tap on the bolsters they seem integral though as there is no vibration.

In short I realy dont know how this has been done. :( Perhaps it is fused in some manner? hot steel to hot steel? is that possible?}

I can fantisise it is perhaps welded inside the bolster "cup" against a non visible part of the blade? possible, but no proof.

Hi JP,
When I said the majority were right handed, I belived it as thats what I thought I have seen,

Upon checking after reading your statement , I have to say I was falling for an optical illusian by failing to take the distal & frontal taper of the blade into account when I had preiviously laid the blades on a table with the handles over the edge. :eek: :rolleyes:

My error! Apologies to all!

A couple of mine have a small twist in, but it is only a couple & perhaps it is not from a deliberate manufacturing tecnique!

So thanks for pointing out my incorrect deduction. The smile & wink was me be clever! silly me! LOL O well such is trouble with learning & deductions!

It is an interesting kukri for sure, Its posed several questians for me & enabled me to correct a couple of prievious deductions on my part regarding dating of kukri.

Obviously good for my studies!

So JP Have you any theories how this bolster was done?

Cheers,
Spiral
 
Re the small "lip" seen on the blade "end" of bolsters - esp. of military items. Decorative or functional?
 
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