Worst Kukri? (And a Give-Away)

J

JNieporte

Joined
Nov 1, 2004
Messages
3,352
I'd like you to tell me what, in your experience, is the worst kukri you've used. It can be for any reason: fit and finish, dullness, edge retention, price, etc. but please tell me why.

Please no arguing; if you think your $15 Cold Steel performed better than your $100 Himalayan Imports, and you've given a reason why, then nobody should bash you for your opinion. Likewise, this isn't the place to discuss the best kukri available; we all (for the most part) like our Condors and Kabars, but this isn't the thread for that. We're discussing the worst ones.

Photos will help illustrate a point (ie. it was dull, the blade bent, the edge chipped, etc.) but aren't necessary.

Also, let's not get into the traditional kukri VS. kukri-shaped machete debate - we all know what makes a kukri a kukri - for the purpose of this thread, we're talking about any fixed blade with a kukri shape.

And now, for the give-away. Just tell me what the worst kukri is in your experience and why; the person who gets the one I'm thinking of first wins. Be honest in your answers; don't try to guess the kukri I'm thinking of. The prize is a kukri (what else?), not a bad one, shipped to your house for free. I'll let this run for at least a week.
 
Awesome idea, I'll be reading this with interest.
Unfortunately I'm out of tge give away as I've never experienced the joy of using one....
 
worst one is the frost kukri-styled machete

i picked it up at smkw a couple years back and i thought it was great but i was sorely mistaken

the finish was terrible, the blade was incredibly dull, the handle was really cheap, i never really choped anything with it so i dont know how well it would have performed

i would have never bought it but i didnt know any better at the time:o

thanks for the chance:thumbup::)
 
I snapped a S&W Bush Hog's blade, chopping firewood on an overnight varmint hunt on a buddy's ranch outside of San Antonio. We mudded across tens of thousands of acres in a buddy's old F150 pickup truck, parked along a good sized creek, beat the bush for a few hours looking for koyotes, hogs etc. and then set up camp. I think it was mesquite I was chopping.... I bought the blade on base for 23 bucks, or something negligible like that, but it was still a disappointment. Had to make do with my FN FAL bayonet... which in turn got the job done.
 
I hate all swapmeet khukrapies got two when I was younger to use and all they funking did was dent, role, bend and chip with every swing. Then they died, one at the hands of a 12 gauge slug the other sailed through the sky and then into the dump. The ony thing they ever cut WAS the air.
 
I picked up a cheaper than dirt kukri (KLO), with a 1/8" spine and the crappiest handles ever! This doesn't even include the cloth sheath that the blade cut right through the first time I drew it! Anyhow, the CTD kuk is crap, not even cool to look at!
 
Well the worst experience i had with a khukiri was at an antique shop in denver. the owner had two supposed world war 2 era khukiris in his case. one longer one, one shorter. One with the sheath but missing the two smaller knives, the other just the khukiri. Both the handles were decaying and falling apart, both were completely dull. When i asked him about the two smaller knives for the one with the sheath he went on to tell me how the knives were originally from india and how the indian warriors would have long hair and how the knives weren't actually knives but hair pins to keep the warrior's hair out of the way during battle.

So the no-knowledge sales pitch was my worst khukiri experience.
 
Okay I will play. Here is a tourist Kukri that I got off ebay from a bad seller who gave wrong information on his auction.

First thing I will have to mention is the sheer softness of the metal? Now I hear you saying "well how soft is it?" Well the other day when I was playing around with it out of boredom and testing I noticed a whole new gouge out of the steel near the fuller. Well gouges can sometimes happen as you know, but typically I am concerned when the blade does this...

kukriblade1.jpg


Yes that is a gouge almost as deep as the fuller after there. Wasn't there before I started chopping on all of one sapling. The blade damage where it chipped and rolled is equally from the one sapling. This is after it was very well sharpened and nice and sharp. To go through an inch of wood would take about a dozen strokes even then and the main reason it cut was the weight. Other Kukris I played with can go through that in one swipe.

I did use it once before mind you to delimb two whole saplings as a test. The blade was chipped to pieces and rolled in sections. When I went to fix the blade up with a sharpening rod it ground through the metal like no tomorrow. I was taking out chips after a dozen or so movements. I had reground and sharpen the blade to as sharp as it would go, which is not that sharp. I estimate the hardness of the steel at perhaps RC40. I literally seen Pakistani cheaper blades made of the same stuff, and I imagine they come from the same steel supplies.

kukriblade3.jpg


The blade also has major rust problems, especially on the pommel and in the blade itself. It been in a low humidity environment and fairly well looked after. No other blade has picked up a speck of dust, including the carbon steel blades such but this one went really bad. The pommel itself has massive gouges out of the end which is how it came and they rusted out even worse to leave big indentations. It really makes it pretty when a few wood saplings can ding, scratch and and do in the whole blade.

Here is a picture of the handle. Typically hardwood handle. Not badly done after I sanded down all the sharp spikey bits on the sides. Of course you can't do much about the metal there at the ring that digs out of the wood by about 3 mm and digs into your hand so if you don't wear gloves it creates a very nice blister where it rubs.

kukriblade2.jpg


I try and take some more pictures in tomorrow to give a nice close up on the blade chipping. It really is a thing of beauty... well horror. Easy mistake.
 
The worst I've personally used (which isn't many--I'm CERTAIN there are much worse!) is the CS Kukri Machete. The handle (as it comes from the factory) is a blister machine. Nothing a little sandpaper doesn't fix though.
 
The smaller Cold Steel Kukri Machete is terrible, terrible edge from the factory, it gave me a nasty case of the palm herpes (blisters from hot spots) and finally why sell it with a sheath if the sheath rips when the knife goes inside???

The strange part is I have heard good things about the larger size...
 
My worst was from KHHI, I ordered their 15" chitlange, after I ordered they sent me an e-mail saying the Kami that normally makes that kukri was ill, i said no problem I would gladly wait to get the kukri that i wanted. After a few weeks they sent me an e-mail asking if i would like a different handle (a "modern" style one with finger grooves) I replied no I would prefer the traditional style. a few weeks later the Kukri came. I was very disappointed in the quality of the knife. The "gold" fill on the decorative portion of the blade was poorly done and missing in spots, the blade is supposed to have a wide fuller that runs the length of the blade (which it did) but near the tip on one side there was a huge dent, it was so bade that it almost made the blade look bent at the tip. There was pitting on the blade near the handle. I have never been more disappointed in my life. Especially since they claim that every Khuk goes through QC before being shipped. I was so disappointed and angry. And to top that off the "leather" that was used was not leather but rawhide and not even properly cured (Stank of rank dead animal smell) I had to dry it in the sun for a week! Now I would have no problem with that portion of they said they used rawhide, but they say LEATHER, and the knife didn't fit well in the sheath either, way too tight, could barely get it in, could barely get it out again. Well that's may worst Kukri experience.
Oh, I took the khuk to my local knife guy, he ground out the blade to where the dent is almost gone, did a great job keeping it convex, and removed alot of excess weight, all for fifteen bucks. I like it much better now, it even fits better in the sheath, thank you local knife guy!
 
Mine was also the CS kukri machete. I wound up regrinding the edge to a nicer convex edge, but still I had to take the bends out, and resharpen CONSTANTLY.

It chopped ok, but nothing that my old Ontario couldn't handle.

(I guess I'm going to have to grow up and get an adult kukri)
 
Gotta second the CS Kukri. The handle is a blister, solar flare, hotspot, lava, skin bubbling nightmare! Not to mention the edge couldnt cut anything let alone myself if I fell on it! And finally the icing on the cake was the powder coat job, it was caked on so much that I had to scrap if off the edge just to make sure the bladed wasnt plastic underneath! JUNK! CS should be ashamed of releasing such garbage! The funny thing was the sheath was actually the best part...yet it was still complete crap!
 
My worst one would have to be one I got on EBay. It was marked as "Nepalese Kukri" and picture was low quality, but the price was right, I was young(er) and stupid(er), so I figured what the heck? That thing was a piece of junk.

For one, it had a rebated edge. Not dull - rebated. No edge at all. Like a Spyderco Gunting trainer. I've owned butter knives that were sharper. On the side of the blade that wasn't shown in the picture there was "INDIA" tattooed in huge letters, plus some twirly design. The handle was some base white metal, really low quality, almost like pewter.

And the worst part? The whole thing was twisted! Yeah, the blade and the handle when you looked at it from the spine had a very distinct propeller shape. It didn't bend in use, it had no scratches, it was made that way.

How the seller arrived at "Nepalese" from a piece of junk with "India" on it I still don't know to this day. Gave it away for $1 at the garage sale, I think. In retrospect, I think I ripped someone off... :rolleyes: That truly was the worst KLO (Kukri-Like Object) I have ever owned.

An honorable mention goes to a slightly higher quality Indian cheapie. It was one of those with a very rough lion's head on the pommel, horn handle with metal nails in it for decoration. Also came butter-knife-dull, but at least the blade on that one was straight and it didn't have India stamped anywhere. Also gone in a garage sale, though that one was at least OK to look at if you're half-blind.

Now the kukri the picture of which is posted above, the one stamped "India" near the handle with wooden grip held together with two pins is actually third-worst I've ever had. It came dull, but it had a semblance of an edge to it. After some sharpening and an awful lot of polishing and refinishing the handle (polished and lacquered it), it wasn't actually half bad! lol

I still have that one, and I actually used it during house renovations when we needed to knock down a few walls and ceiling with tons of thick cast plaster on them. It was the only knife in the house I didn't feel bad about batoning with using a steel hammer. Actually performed quite well, after hours of banging on its spine, barely took any damage and the edge didn't chip and hardly rolled.
 
Damascus klo from Pakistan. Opened the box and it broke after a mild flex by my hands! Broke not at the cho but at transition of handle to blade. Upon inspection the two surfaces of the broken area (inside the steel and not on surface of khuk) was rusted! I figure it was not bonded/fused properly during forging stage. Wondered how that POS managed to survive grinding?!?

Refund including shipping offered and accepted. Seller even paid for the khuk to be shipped back to him as he wanted to investigate for own improvement. That was at least a positive thing.
 
I've never used a khukri and only own two of them, so my experiences are rather limited.

The only negative experience was once ordering a vintage WWII khukri from Atlanta Cutlery and finding out it was actually made between 1902 and 1928. If you can call that a "negative" experience... :D
 
That made in india one above is hard to beat lol.
Out of the 2 I have a condor and a cs. The cs is the worst, uncomfortable handle a steel that i dont even think was ht'd. It dulls completely within 10 swings.
 
A lot of CS kukri bashing I'm AMAZED !! My cheapo CS kukri has been great for the past year I've owned it.. yeah the handle sucks, but if you rework the blade it won't chip/roll or anything.. Had the same prob with my marbles til I worked the blade now its really hard to chip or roll it, but the CS metal outperforms all my cheaper machetes...

As much as I hated to admit it in the spur of the moment review I did,http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=776888 I'll say this is the WORST Khukuri (i own couple more and they're equally bad).. And intend on selling all of them..

IMG_1956.jpg


yeah its pretty, but their function isn't for me, I've tried to make them work but compared to the real world... just isn't happening... sorry I'm no longer a collector but a user.. and these I can't use, to heavy, awkward, and simply can't perform, period..

Ready for hate mail now.. :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top