Weed Killer No. 1

G

Glenn Jones

Joined
Feb 26, 2002
Messages
618
Forget chopping, forget cutting - none of these are the real uses for the khukurie. You've all got it wrong. Their number one use - weed killer/remover without peer! I suppose I'd better explain. We've gone through one of the worst droughts in memory. All the grass in the backyard has gone and been replaced by the most horrible weed. The ground is rock hard and it's amazing that anything can grow in it. The weed that does grow is covered in prickles that cut into anything. My dogs get them in their feet and when I try to remove the prickles from their feet I get them sticking in my fingers. Grabbing the weed to pull them out is a no no. Even touching them is risky. The reason they grow so prolifically in the drought is because they send down this amazing tap root. It cannot be easily pulled out. Actually this tap root is their weakness - as I found out. The weed grows like a spreading ripple in a pond from this taproot. If you can find the tap root and dig it out, a massive clump of the weed (sometimes up to 2 feet in radius) comes with it. As I found out, the perfect tool for their removal is a 14 inch villager khukurie I bought from Bill last year. It is the most ugly khukurie you could ever own. The top (spine) of the blade is all twisted and uneven but it weighs only 17 ounces and is easy to carry all day. Its wide blade allows me to lift the vine like branches without touching the weed. I then find it easy to back track to the tap root. Once I find it, the pointed end of the khukurie easily accounts for the hard ground like no other small gardening tool I own and digs out the tap root. My advice to future khukurie owners. Forget about those heavy models for cutting/chopping - buy a lightweight villager. Hold on, bad advice, then there won't be any more for me to buy - please disregard the above and buy a big heavy khukurie:D :D :D
 
Kind of like a lot of other tools. The only time most tools are no longer of use is the owners imagination. Like when the think tank runs dry there aen't any of them good for naught.:)
 
Last summer I bought the ugliest little villager that I have ever seen on this forum. My wife uses it almost exclusively for digging weeds out of the garden and loves it. They all manage to find the right home eventually. :)
 
...is but a beauty in the rough. I too have a villager, also quite homely, quite serviceable as well.

Keith
 
I agree totally with how very serviceable the villager is. I bought a 15 1/2" BirGorkha model by Kumar from Uncle Bill several months back as my first Khukri, and it is still my favorite for all around use. sure, "Jane" only had a satin finish (not the magic stone polish), the handel felt like jagged, splintered dead fall, and the profile was a tad off. But a little sanding and some tru oil on the handle and some steel wool and bluing compound on the blade has gussied her up a bit. Besides that, she's ventured in places where no wall hanger would dare go. So far i've used her to set up camp sites, pry apart logs, dig holes, chop down and limb a 7" tree. I even used that little villager to chop holes in an old discarded car hood to free a litter of kittens that were stuck under there (long story). I, like so many other forumites, have full blown HIKV, but this little ugly villager keeps making the excuses for another one harder and harder to come up with;).

thanx,
jake
 
If you can't get your hands on a villager that knife outfit in Atlanta sells some tools suitable for digging weeds and such.;)

Sarge
 
The last time I had to clear a large area of weeds I used kerosene and a match. It worked too well when the dead stems from the nearby banana plants caught fire as well. My neighbour's wall still bears the scorch marks from that incident which I described in the "Fun with Fire" thread last year... :D

Andrew Lim
 
Originally posted by Bill Martino
Village models are the Marines of the HI khukuris -- end up getting most of the nasty duty.
Click to expand...

My big BirGorkha villager is a gem. :cool:
 
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