Uncle Bill Especial?

T

tjchung

Joined
Dec 23, 2005
Messages
222
Another round of newbie questions, if the experts don't mind. Apologies in advance.

OK, I've been lurking around here long enough to know that;

1. The thin side of the knife is the dangerous part
2. Ang Kholas are choppers, and indestructable at that
3. Martial artists honk for Sirupatis

What I'd like to know is what is the identity of the Uncle Bill Especial? Is it a chopper? A fighter? A jack of all trades? By the looks of the upwardly mobile tip, it may be a better thruster than some other Khukri's I've seen but I wouldn't like to jab any knife without a guard into anything tougher than day old bread.

And what is the difference between the UBS and the Movie Model? They both look pretty similar to me, except perhaps differences in weight and dimensions.

Hope these questions aren't too idiotic. Just curious. Many thanks in advance for any info you can impart.
 
The UBE is a shorter usually thicker / stronger blade, although both the UBE and Movie model are very strong. I have owned 3 UBE's, and the lightest / fastest I have had is 18" 22 oz. in Horn. The others have been about 19" and 28 oz. in wood. They are cool knives, you just have to be careful reinserting them back into the scabbard because of the upswept tip.

The classic Bura Movie Model, (not the new Sher movie model) that I have is longer but about the same weight as the standard UBE, running 21" but still 28 oz.

Uncle Bill said Bura made the MM after seeing a Hollywood version of a kukri in a movie, and wanted to make it. They are both great knives, but if I wanted a more "all around" knife I would get a UBE.

In addition to the ones sold here (see Yangdu's sale threads for 1/9 and 1/17 to see the last two sold here in quite a while), I have also seen one or two for sale on the Exchange from time to time... ;)

Norm
 
Thanks for the info, but again I need to ask, is the UBE a chopper, a fighter or what? I mean, what is the function of the upswept tip that makes it so distinct from other khuks?

Bty, anybody know of one for sale? A buddy of mine in the US Army (currently stationed in Korea) needs a good knife to scare the pants off the North Koreans and fresh faced Pvt's!
 
Here's a Bura Movie Model; it's all a matter of what you like/want:

Bura, 20.5", 27.8 oz.

19ap.jpg


The UBE seems like it but shorter, and both vary: sometimes a lot.

The feel of this one can't be understated. Glad to have it.


Ad Astra
 
Both my UBE and Movie Model feel great in the hand. Seems to me the handles on the MM tend to be large. The UBE is an all around blade. The upturned end would theoretically aid in defense or fighting. If I were looking for an all around blade I'd get the UBE instead of the MM.


munk
 
I haven't handles the UBE, but I do have one of Sher's MM, if you can call it that. It's 20" and weighs 30oz. It doesn't feel heavy, though. It's much more of a stretched out UBE, than that of a Bura MM. The handle was fat, fat, fat! So fat in fact that I couldn't really use it. I know the neem lovers would kill me, but I took a dremel to it to take down the diameter and the took off the rings. I would say now that it this would be a good chopper/fighting cleaver. You aren't going to back cut anyone on the sandbar with this heavy knife, but it would crash through just about anything. A real zombie killer.
You're friend would know more about what he wants in a blade, but I would think any 18" khuk would be way overkill unless he was doing SeaBee kind of work. I don't think I wouldn want anything more than a 15" AK max. I would think that a good JKM, Sarge/KPH, or even a 12" Pen Knife might be better use. If a fighting knife is needed, I believe that Sarge took along a 15" Siru made by Bura and thought pretty highly of it, IIRC. Like I said, your friend will have a better idea of what he needs.
Good luck

Jake
 
My friend tells me that he's teaching a survival course involving tools found locally. Apparently there are 2 dozen ways to kill a man, dig a foxhole, chop wood, make a fire and bake brownies all using a small one handed scythe the local farmers use to harvest rice.

What he says he needs is a good "3rd world blade" (his quotes) to show his students that it doesn't take a 400$ Swedish axe or a saw-backed, hollow-handled Rambo-esque custom survival knife to cut your way out of a shot-down helicoptor, chop down trees for making shelters, split logs for fires, gut & skin small game, dig a slit trench and cut the throats of hordes of commies. So basically he needs a good blade that is both chopper and fighter. Maybe the UBE might fit the bill?
 
tjchung said:
What he says he needs is a good "3rd world blade."
So basically he needs a good blade that is both chopper and fighter.
Maybe the UBE might fit the bill?
Click to expand...

Well for one thing the guy's commanding officer is the one that's going to determine what your friend uses for training purposes and not he himself.:rolleyes:
And "the commie hordes" are no longer a threat as the "Cold War" is over and besides there was no fighting during the "Cold War" which is why it was called that.
And if something is needed to "slit the throats of the commie hordes" the first choice sure wouldn't be a khukuri as they are more useful for removing the head entirely than "slitting any throats.":rolleyes:

And the UBE is pretty much useless when it comes to digging a slit trench or for gutting and skinning small game.
Actually in my opinion the UBE is pretty much worthless for all things a real khukuri is really good at.
It sounds like the best bet would be a simple 15"-18" BGRS or any standard village model in the same range.

Actually Steely_Gunz said it best when he said,
"I would think that a good JKM, Sarge/KPH, or even a 12" Pen Knife might be better use. If a fighting knife is needed, I believe that Sarge took along a 15" Siru made by Bura and thought pretty highly of it, IIRC."

The UBE is more of a novelty knife than anything else and is neither a good fighter or a good chopper. Like one of the guys said, "The handles are fat." and that they are on the UBE. The one I have is so fat it's difficult to get a grip on and isn't safe for chopping as it would quickly fly out of your hand.
And mine isn't unique in having an overly large handle as the other UBE's I've seen also have overly large handles.
 
Yvsa said:
Well for one thing the guy's commanding officer is the one that's going to determine what your friend uses for training purposes and not he himself.:rolleyes:
And "the commie hordes" are no longer a threat as the "Cold War" is over and besides there was no fighting during the "Cold War" which is why it was called that.
And if something is needed to "slit the throats of the commie hordes" the first choice sure wouldn't be a khukuri as they are more useful for removing the head entirely than "slitting any throats.":rolleyes:

And the UBE is pretty much useless when it comes to digging a slit trench or for gutting and skinning small game.
Actually in my opinion the UBE is pretty much worthless for all things a real khukuri is really good at.
It sounds like the best bet would be a simple 15"-18" BGRS or any standard village model in the same range.

Actually Steely_Gunz said it best when he said,
"I would think that a good JKM, Sarge/KPH, or even a 12" Pen Knife might be better use. If a fighting knife is needed, I believe that Sarge took along a 15" Siru made by Bura and thought pretty highly of it, IIRC."

The UBE is more of a novelty knife than anything else and is neither a good fighter or a good chopper. Like one of the guys said, "The handles are fat." and that they are on the UBE. The one I have is so fat it's difficult to get a grip on and isn't safe for chopping as it would quickly fly out of your hand.
And mine isn't unique in having an overly large handle as the other UBE's I've seen also have overly large handles.
Click to expand...

Well, I have to somewhat disagree with you Yvsa. The handles of the 3 I have owned are certainly smaller than the ones on the YCS, and there are some variance in the UBE's. At 18" and 22 oz. the horn one I have is extremely well balanced and fast. It does a good job chopping, although certainly not as well as an AK or BGRS, and I think it would make a wicked slasher/fighter zombie killer.

If you replace "UBE" with Movie Model, then I could agree with most of what you say.

Thanks,

Norm
 
There's a variance in everything HI makes Norm which is a good thing because that means there is something that will fit most everyone.:thumbup: :D The UBE I have and the other two I have seen all have overly fat handles, doesn't mean they all have.
But to me the UBE is still neither a really good chopper or a really good fighter.:( There are other knives that fit each description better in my opinion.;)
 
To tell you the truth, I'm not sure there is much difference between my UBE and most other khuks of similar weight and length. I guess I'd compare it to a WWll, as neither have the same weight forward as does a GR or AK. Hardly useless though, I find the UBE very acceptable and perhaps more so for all around than even the WWll, if you want to compare the points of the blades, where the UBE has an advantage over the HI version of the WWll. The UBE chops quite well in my experience. Perhaps if a grip is too thick for some hands,(or too small) one is not comfortable and the chopping suffers.

As for the Movie model, Bura's upturned tip is so pronounced that it is difficult to put in the sheath. I'll have to get mine out to weigh it, but it does chop. The newer Movie Models have less of a upturned tip- the ones done by Sher I guess.

The Movie Model is too long to want to carry around, and the design kind of dangerous for chopping- I mean- do I really want a reverse edge facing my body as I chop? But it does chop, and the grip is very comfortable. I like the UBE grip too.

The UBE is actually an unsung blade. When I first got here, I could see no use for it, and the design was even outlandish to my eyes. But when I returned from a long absence, there was one on sale, and the delight of the maker was clearly on the blade. At those times I do have the UBE on my person in the woods, I know any Cougar is doubly in trouble because of the tip.

I'm glad I have both. They're in the same family, the UBE is more useful though.

edit- I'd like to add; both the UBE and Movie feel great in the hands. The Movie is actually extraordinary.

munk
 
I'll defend the Movie Model too. I don't think of it as a khukuri; it has the weight but not the feel of a wood cutter. I have other khuks better suited to wood. The grip is super comfortable in my hand. To me it's more of a true short sword; weapon, not tool. Also, mine is unusually well-finished for an HI.

It may fail in the khukuri world; it excels as a fast-moving, large sharp knife. Repels boarders nicely, arrghh.



Ad Astra
 
Different strokes for different folks.:thumbup: :D :cool: ;) I just happen to think the UBE is just a novelty knife as is the Movie Model and not as good for chopping as a standard khukuri and not as good a fighter as say a good Bowie.
But not having ever handled a Movie Model or even seen one up close I'll reserve judgment on it.
Munk could be right and if the handle on my UBE was of a decent size and fit me properly I might have a different feeling for it.
I do suppose they are *cool* looking to some and I think they do make a good knife for the movies as they do have that weirdness that a lot of people like.:rolleyes: :p ;)
 
I would ditto what has already been well said - the UBE and the Movie Model are novelty items perhaps not of much practical use but in my opinion just look too cool not to have at least one of each in my collection! Probably any one of the twenty-odd other khuks that I have would serve better as a chopper or slasher and I wouldn't relegate either to yard work but there is something about the look of these two models that just stirs my interest. I got lucky and snagged a UBE recently - the shark frenzy is usually well over by the time I get home and get a chance to peruse the forum, but a nice UBE was still available six hours after the frenzy started - go figure, I think it just had my name on it. My UBE accompanies me at night when I am working around my property (protection against mountain lions and coyotes which have been sighted near here, at least so I tell myself). I'm hoping it's going to be the same story tonight - a Bura Movie Model apparently still available six hours after posting? I put in a bid for it , we'll see if I get lucky again. Practically speaking I don't have much use for either but I just really like the way they look (plus some sentimental value for me in having a khukuri model made especially for Uncle Bill, the UBE).
 
My friend is a 20 year veteran of the Green Berets, retired as a CWO and is now a civilian contractor with the US Army in Korea, teaching scary stuff like how to remove a man's heart, stuff it in a doggie bag and hand it to him before he even knows what happened. As such, his commanding officer gives him a LOT of leeway, as I can well imagine. From what he tells me, it almost sounds like one of those army comedy movies out of Hollywood. The salty NCO's wheel & deal, and the green officers don't have a clue!

Also, altho I know the cold war is over and the term "commie hordes" is no longer PC, both my friend and my relatives back in South Korea say things are still pretty tense over there. After all, North Korea is the last Stalinist totalitarian state, the people are taught/forced/brainwashed to worship the "dear leader" as a god, and they have over a million men at arms poised at the DMZ, just waiting for the word to human wave in a southernly direction. Satellite intel shows almost 9,000 artillery pieces aimed at the US and South Korean guard posts along the DMZ, and to top it off they've recently gone nuclear! The cold war may be over, but apparently nobody told the North Koreans!

Sorry about the political diatribe. Anyway, I showed my friend a picture of the UBE that svashtar has up for sale on the exchange and he almost had an orgasm! Altho he knows what a Khukri looks like, he's never seen one like a UBE, and is begging me for more info. So if there're any more UBE owners out there who'd like to share some hard won experience, good or bad, both my friend & I would be mighty obliged.
 
If this says anything, I wouldn't sell my UBE.

It brings up a interesting question; the distribution of the forward weight. I'm no engineer or even machinest, so I'm over my head here. The khuk chops well because of the angle, and the weight forward. UBE's and WWll's can't compete with Ganga Rams and AK's. Not the same amount of weight forward.

But what of the UBE's upturned point? IT is still weight forward- but in a different place, heading a different direction. Dan Koster played around with this when he designed the Pen; not much angle, but a chunk of weight forward, (and if you look at the shape, the broadening of the blade near the end is not far frrom the angle of a standard khuk)

Anyway, I really can't tell much difference between the UBE and the WWll in chopping. They 'swing' differently and balance a little different. I actually kind of like the way the UBE swings.

I've no idea what kind of equipment we'd need to measure this stuff. Only thing I do know is I would not trust the folks in the Animal vs Animal show on TV to do the measuring.
They had a lion kill a tiger, if you can believe that.



munk
 
Well, to put in my 2 cents, I've handled Satori's UBE, and I must say that it is quite lively in the hand. I'm not sure of the measurements (size/ weight), but it is quite agile, and screams fighter to me. I've not had the opportunity to use it for any cutting or chopping chores, but the in hand feel did impress me.

As an aside, due to the majority of the blade bing below the handle, I also think that the UBE would perform comendably in the kitchen. One would be able to cut meat/ veggies etc. on a cutting board or counter, and not worry about the handle contacting the board or counter and getting in the way. Making most of the blade useable. (just an observation).

mike
 
I have 2 UBE's; one by Bura and one by Sanu. In the categories of strength, indestructability (did I just invent a word?), and weight, these things are tanks. They make great camp site knives, but I wouldn't want to have to carry them around. They will try to pull your pants down during a long hike. They make good vehicle knives but you better coat them with something anti-rust that won't break down in extreme heat. And if they have horn handles, rub in lots of Hooflex first. Both my UBE's have chiruwa tangs so I removed the horn slabs and had a local knife maker put canvas micarta on both of them so I don't have to worry about my handle material shrinking or splitting. IMO the UBE's are more lively than AK's but less so than sirupatis. Their points have a thinner cross section than other khuk models and are less resistant to lateral stresses. Just don't use it as a prybar and it'll do fine. YMMV.
 
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