What is a better do-everything-hiking knife than CS Gurkha Kukri?

[ShooterMcgavin]

My Sawvivor weighs 10 ounces and has an 18 inch saw blade. I replaced some of the rivets with nuts and bolts and it is now bulletproof. I also wear a Busse meaner streets on my belt, I have my son carry the estwing hatchet for redundancy.

There's the solution! I need to get one of those! ...the son, I mean, to carry the heavy hatchet

The Estwing Craftsman (14" with leather handle) is the hatchet I use. I will look into that Saw!

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

any of the Condor choppers.

+1 on that one.

 

[BryFry]

Wasn't there a picture floating around of a CS Khukri with a tang failure?
I've never seen anyone post pics of a broken HI.

My wife bought me one (HI 12" blade) as a gift a couple years ago, its blade was cracked from the edge to half way to the spine. I sent it back and got a full refund.

I do like kuks but I preffer the fully flat ground blades on modern styled knives like CS, to the grinds on traditional ones like those made by HI.

I hear alot of CS sucks, HI is great, but has anyone realy done a fair comparison between the two, or is it just brand loyalty/CS bashing?

I have one of each style but haven't had a chance to put them to a true head to head chopping comparison yet, but I plan to this spring.

 

[vector001]

CS Kukris have been notorious for being too hard.

i'd go with HI like the brother above suggested, if i didn't have my own idea of an ultralight chopper, which is not really a knife, not one that follows convention at least.

vec

 

[Zombie Zeke]

CS Kukris have been notorious for being too hard.

i'd go with HI like the brother above suggested, if i didn't have my own idea of an ultralight chopper, which is not really a knife, not one that follows convention at least.

vec

I smell a thread via request on that last idea, you are one creative SOB.

 

[Gadgetaholic]

I'm gonna be straight up here.. I think a khuk as a chopper is a real work horse.. But for any blade that excells in 1 area you are going to have to compromise in all other areas, if you want to carry only 1 tool.

while a khuk will chop... it is less than ideal for filleting a brook trout..

while my mora, might be great for carving and cooking small game, it lacks the robustness needed to process large amounts of fire wood (if that;s what you are doing)

I am currelntly experimenting with using 1 knife for everything....(a bk7) and it is a excercis in compromise.. it is to small to be a great chopper... to long to be a detailed carver. but as I learn to adapt to these compromises the way I approach activites is evolving, in respect to my given tool.

I have just been camping and tested out my BK7 & my KA-BAR Kukri Machete. I have to agree 100% that the BK7 is too small to be a great chopper - the Kukri was so much easier to chop wood with.

My Kukri did a great job and I am really glad I bought it. It only cost $46 so it wasn't a huge cash outlay. The blade is 11.5" so it is not a huge heavy thing to haul around (probably about 22oz). It worked well for chopping and also for batoning. It wasn't bad as a machete, but lacked the reach of longer machetes. The KA-BAR is made from 1085 which is a good choice IMO.

 

[August West]

What are you talking about, sonny? You're still a young-in!

Doc

Sometimes it's not how old the car is, but how many miles are on it. Chris

 

[Cpl Punishment]

The 5160 blade of the HI is not going to surpass the hardness of the CS Gurkha at RC 65.

Go back and read what I said again (especially the CS quote).

the 65 Rc is after the initial quench, but

Our working temper for these SK-5 steel knives are RC 57-58.

65 is way too hard.
Just about any steel after the initial quench is going to be in the mid to high 60s, but can't be used after the initial quench as it's too brittle. Metal objects have been known to shatter on the Rockwell tester if tested after the initial quench. They have to be reheated and drawn back to achieve proper hardness/toughness levels.


If you're really after a really light chopper, buy a machete and a file.

 

[wildmike]

For a chopper the differential hardening process is ideal. It allows the edge to be hard so that it can take and hold a sharp edge while allowing the rest of the blade to be tougher in order to take impact and lateral force.

As an example when cutting out notches on a log for a log cabin I took a bit too large of a bite with my M-43. I applied lateral force to the kukri handle flexing the blade well past the 30 degree point busting out the notch. If the balde had not been differentialy heat treated during the forging process the blade would most likely have broken.

Ther was once a comparison thread on the H.I. subforum but that was years ago and it is now probably in the archives. In that comparison two major flaws in the CS Gurkha Kukri's design were pointed out. First is its grind which caused it to continualy stick in the material (trees) being cut, second was the handle material which caused excessive hot spots and blisters on the hand in use TOO MUCH TRACTION. By the end of the testing the Kraton handle was also showing excessive wear. This was in the original Carbon V blade.

 

[Shoki]

My wife bought me one (HI 12" blade) as a gift a couple years ago, its blade was cracked from the edge to half way to the spine. I sent it back and got a full refund.

I do like kuks but I preffer the fully flat ground blades on modern styled knives like CS, to the grinds on traditional ones like those made by HI.

I hear alot of CS sucks, HI is great, but has anyone realy done a fair comparison between the two, or is it just brand loyalty/CS bashing?

I have one of each style but haven't had a chance to put them to a true head to head chopping comparison yet, but I plan to this spring.

I'm not a CS basher (though I'm not an LT fan and I thing 'Solid Proof' is the best comedy film I've seen in a while) and I own a sweet San Mai Master hunter. I wouldn't buy the CS machetes though, and I wasn't impressed with them when I sold them at a retail store. I had a Bolo come back that was broken clean in half while clearing brush in someone's back yard. We never stocked them again. Some of their stuff is excellent but then some of it is crap. I'd take one HI kuk over six CS kuks.

 

[ShooterMcgavin]

Go back and read what I said again (especially the CS quote).

the 65 Rc is after the initial quench, but

65 is way too hard.
Just about any steel after the initial quench is going to be in the mid to high 60s, but can't be used after the initial quench as it's too brittle. Metal objects have been known to shatter on the Rockwell tester if tested after the initial quench. They have to be reheated and drawn back to achieve proper hardness/toughness levels.

Sorry, about the misunderstanding. I had read that the blade had a hardness of 65 a while ago and then found "RC 65" in your quote. You are right, it is brought down lower to 57-58. I should have read more closely.

I think you guys have talked some sense into me I appreciate all the ideas and input and bantering.

I think I am going to look into a good folding saw and stick with my RC-4 until I can afford something up to ~6-7 inches. It's sometimes hard to leave behind the efficiency of the little hatchet.

 

[geek]

+

=

 

[alco141]

i think an atax might be another option, it is handy, easy to carry compact rides on your belt, and is able to chop, field dress, and handle any of the camp building chores, that and a one handed treker, or a small fixed blade or multitool and you would be set.

alex

 

[ROCK6]

Originally Posted by kgd
My feeler is going to be to see how long it takes Doc Canada to be arrested as a massive crazed, head decapitating on the bus type of character for carrying a Khuk in the Greater Toronto Area.

I'll give you a heads up when we set the date.
Doc

Hmmm...I hope that was "pun intended" Doc...What kind of sickness you got up North Be careful kgd

Back on topic...if you want to carry a big chopper backpacking, that's fine, there are some who do and know how to use it. My "car" isn't as worn out as Chris' and I'll sometimes carry a large chopper as well but Rescue Riley is spot on when it comes to advantages and disadvantages. To be honest, if I carry a large blade, I have to do it with the planned purpose to make a shelter or some other larger chopping chore.

I have an older CS Gurka Kurkri in Carbon-V. It's actually a nice manufactured piece, but not comparable to my HI Khukuris. It can take a razor's edge and actually works pretty good on smaller projects by holding the flat of the blade, but the rubber handle sucks for extended chopping. I like it as a very expensive machete...used on soft vegetation it works better than a real Khukuri due to the flat grind. I don't like to use it for chopping hard wood. To be honest, if you're set on a large Khukuri type chopper, I would jump over to the HI sub-forum and check on their daily specials. You can find a great Khuk for well under $100.

Hey Chris, you must have retired and started getting soft

ROCK6

 

[abchopper]

RescueRiley: I'm gonna be straight up here.. I think a khuk as a chopper is a real work horse.. But for any blade that excells in 1 area you are going to have to compromise in all other areas, if you want to carry only 1 tool.

while a khuk will chop... it is less than ideal for filleting a brook trout..

while my mora, might be great for carving and cooking small game, it lacks the robustness needed to process large amounts of fire wood (if that;s what you are doing)

I am currelntly experimenting with using 1 knife for everything....(a bk7) and it is a excercis in compromise.. it is to small to be a great chopper... to long to be a detailed carver. but as I learn to adapt to these compromises the way I approach activites is evolving, in respect to my given tool.

I'm with RescueRiley on this one. I really love the kuk shape as well but for me it falls flat in the small knife department or finer tasks.

I'm currently using an CG Ash1. Heavy enough to chop with and short enough for finer cutting. My one has the handle skeletonised so it now a bit lighter to carry.

Just as a side note, like BryFry I also had a bad experience with HI. After 6 months waiting for an order after I had paid for it Yangdu thought that I was trying to pull a fast one on her when I enquired about it!! She did eventually send one out once I emailed her all the correspondence between us and a copy of the payment transaction. When I did get it I was disappointed to find a soft edge. Yangdu told me that it was a bad heat treat batch and that I wasn't the only one! She did say she was going to replace it. I think 2 months later I reminded her of the replacement and she said they were still on back order. After another 6 months I cut my loses and gave up. Now I do realise that a lot of people have had a good experience with HI. Unfortunately, mine was not.

Inspite of all this I still like Kuks.

 

[Cpl Punishment]

I think I am going to look into a good folding saw and stick with my RC-4 until I can afford something up to ~6-7 inches. It's sometimes hard to leave behind the efficiency of the little hatchet.

If you want to go light and have a good chopper, why not look into a Tomahawk? You have to learn to use them differently than a hatchet, but they can be quite efficient at chopping, and a "proper hawk" as brother Vec would have it, is quite light.

 

[Shoki]

If you want to go light and have a good chopper, why not look into a Tomahawk? You have to learn to use them differently than a hatchet, but they can be quite efficient at chopping, and a "proper hawk" as brother Vec would have it, is quite light.

I used to carry an ATC VTAC and a Chris Reeve Aviator for woods bumming and camping and got by just fine. I actually kinda miss that setup.

 

[crossada]

Vec hawks are hard to beat imo. Here is a IGH hawk from him with a CS 12" machete for size comparison. Vec promotes the ounce per inch rule and he made a believer out of me with it.

 

[Cpl Punishment]

OK, let's get 'em drooling over some Vecage. . .

 

[Yoshi]

I think it is hard to beat traditionaly made khukuri, one of my favourite general carries is a post WWII BSI, hollow forged 11.5" blade, weighing 18oz.