For the past couple months I've been trying to tackle an absolutely horrendous trumpet vine infestation with various tramontinas, parangs, what have you. These toxic things vary from thin leafy stalks to thick gnarled trunks inches across that I've actually mistook for other trees when trying to remove them, and decided I needed something a little more capable.
My first experience with a kukri-like object was a lion-pommel dui chirra that my father had bought for me from a museum replicas or some such affiliated mailorder catalogue decades ago, that I used to whack apart pepper trees in the yard with as a kid. Beloved nostalgia that it was, I now have learned that my long lost knife was a dull, made in India, tourist quality blade and not indicative of a genuine khukuri experience. After looking over many videos and blogs all roads seemed to lead to a few nepalese manufacturers with HI always in the forefront of recommendations, although the backlog on commissions for everyone seems involve months and months of waiting. I had been lurking this forum for other knives for a good half year before learning HI had a subforum, and was overjoyed to find out that you could, if time and chance were fortuitous, immediately purchase a blade directly from forum posts.
I was lucky enough to snag a blem 15 inch BAS and was surprised not just by the quality of the blade, but the little details of craftsmanship, the delicate bronze inlays in the spine, etc. I had read some detractors complaining about HI blades being on the heavier side but this was so light, while being SHARP! It was as if it were tailor made for destroying these vines! Witnessing the synergy of the form and function of this design in motion on living wood for the first time is hard to describe, other than "Wow that was easy." Suffice to say I should have invested in one long beforehand. Sadly, after just a day of use I had noticed that the buttcap had come loose. Maybe it was from hammering too hard on heavier branches than I should have or perhaps, despite oiling, from wood shrinkage from being in a dry desert environment. It didn't seem to have any effect on the handle or the blade though, and the BAS still works above and beyond my expectations just fine, albeit now with a jingling rattle. But I wondered whether I should have gotten a full tang or something with maybe a little more heft for tougher things. Having read multiple posts here extolling the virtues of the almighty CAK I learned of chiruwas.
So when this posting appeared right as I absently looked at the forum I must apologize, I pounced on it immediately. It just ticks all the boxes I was looking for and in person it does not disappoint one bit! It fits the hand like a glove and the weight distribution is nothing short of perfection. It's sharp enough to lop off thin branches in the air yet can devastate thick ones on a stump as well as my TOPS El Chete, yet without the arm fatigue that that chopper gives me. It doesn't hurt that this beautiful curve is easy to look at. I think I have found my spirit khukuri.
Thank you to Auntie Yangdu and Ram Kumar for putting this in my hands. You have a fan for life. And thank you to the all the wonderful forum posters sharing their experiences, even if it somethings seems like an idle comment such things build up the knowledge base for others like me.
congrats!
