why are the karda/chakma always sized in relation to their khukri?

B

BlindedByTheLite

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May 6, 2004
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is it a portability/carry thing? tradition? is it assumed that, practically, a smaller khukri wont be put to work/put in a position that would require a larger karda/chakma?

i've been thinking how nice it would be to have a 3" (or even 4") bladed karda riding with my 12" Ang Khola vs. the rather small 1&3/4" bladed karda it came equipped with. this isn't a complaint really, as i carry other blades when i'm out in the woods anyway... but it got me to thinking. seems like they'd fit okay. maybe...

i apologize if this has been brought up b4,
-Ryan
 
part of it is that a 4" blade wouldnt fit into the back of the sheath, where as with the longer blades you can sometimes fit karda's as big as 9". other then that, i cant see a utilitarian reason for the karda being so small with the 12" ang khola. at that size, its pretty much a dedicated small animal skinner (rabbit, squirell, bird@trout)
 
It's not even a skinner, but it would *probably* work to sharpen a pencil should you need to write a letter out in the woods ;-)
 
I've obtained extras and replaced almost all of the karda's & chakma's on my khukri's with larger, better or both. I have found this to be much more useful and satisfactory.

The downside of course is that I have about a dozen of these tiny things just hanging around now. Maybe I'll make tiny sheaths for them and pass them out as pencil sharpeners...
 
I HAVE seen kardas that had handles about 1/2 the size of the khukuri handle and a much more substantial blade, whereas the chakma was very small.
tradkukri-5and6.jpg
 
Sell those in lots of 3 on Ebay. THose are official Gurkha torture knives man!! :)
 
The three antique village khukruis I have (see picture above to get idea) all have kardas that are mush larger than "in proportion" - good, working knives. One 14" siru has the largest karda I own - 6" x .7" wide blade. A 12" AK could easily have one that large - all a matter of how deep the pouch for it is made. (Then we could "torture" with max efficiency!! :eek: )
 
The kukri pictured does have the largest karda in relation to blade I have seen. Some have larger pieces added later, but this was made specifically to take these big kardas.

Usually it's the old village types that have these but the earlier hanshees & budhumes that have the "barking deer" handled kardas are quite large in relation to blade size. Overall 17 7/8" and the big karda is 8 3/4".
bigkarda.jpg
 
John Powell said:
. . .

Usually it's the old village types that have these but the earlier hanshees & budhumes that have the "barking deer" handled kardas are quite large in relation to blade size. Overall 17 7/8" and the big karda is 8 3/4".
John, what is a "barking deer" handle?

Tom
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Tom, I've posted pix of these before, but they are kardas mounted with the antlers from a miniature Asian deer known under various names. These little "barking deer" are thought to be extinct although other small deer are still found in SEAsia.

The top karda is a skosh over 9" and the smallest is the most diminutive I've found. They are 18th century pieces and found (if you're lucky) with some hanshees & budhumes.

barkdeer.jpg
 
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