Yangdu is after me to post this.

Bill Martino

Bill Martino

Joined
Mar 5, 1999
Messages
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When the cracked khukuri post appeared I figured everybody would take a look and realize this khukuri did not come out of BirGorkha and is not an HI product. Yangdu disagrees and says I must point out this fact. I never argue so here is the post to get Yangdu to stop barking.

Free again.
 
I read Dans cracked kothimoda with interest. Assuming it was HI from Dans post.

Snoopy" sent me his cracked dhankuta kothimoda (which Bill replaced a la H.I.'s warranty). Little did he know what I had in mind for it....


Was this a Sgt Karka model? I ran a search for Snoopy and cracked dhankuta and came up empty.

Anyone have the original link?
 
Was this a Sgt Karka model?

Yes. They don't have much quality control over the steel used. Hell, if a kami is walking to work and sees a piece of steel laying roadside he'll pick it up and make a khukuri out of it and get a pat on the back for saving a dollar.
 
I'm sure that this was a Sgt. Kharka khukuri as I have one of its identical sisters, and mine is wonderfully made. I might send pictures of mine to Dan to see if he would like to post them, as I've done a vinegar etch and the temper line is awesome.

Geoffrey
 
Now I am confused... The cracked Khukri was one I purchased from Bill via a "specials" post here in the forum on 12/2. Here is the post: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=323317&highlight=Dhankuta+Kothimoda

And here is the post where I asked about the crack: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=324098

Was this not a HI product? If not, aren't any of the Khukris made by Sgt Karka HI products? I can understand why Yangdu was pestering you to clarify. I didn't know there was a difference, can somone explain.

Whatever the case, of the four I have purchased it was the only one that smelt nice. :) Thought that was kind of fun. And as described in Dan's post, Bill and Yangdu took care of this quickly for me.

Thanks!
 
Snoopy said:
If not, aren't any of the Khukris made by Sgt Karka HI products. I didn't know there was a difference, can somone explain.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
The good Sergeant has his own shop. The better khuks that are made there including the ones by Sgt Karka himself are often brought to HI and sold.
HI in turn sells them and gives them the same guarantee as the standard HI khuk's.
 
I must have not read it right, and am glad Yangdu lobbied for the clarification, because I thought Dan's thread was about a HI khuk.


Thank you, Yangdu.


munk
 
munk said:
I must have not read it right, and am glad Yangdu lobbied for the clarification, because I thought Dan's thread was about a HI khuk.


Thank you, Yangdu.


munk
Click to expand...

Me too! Thanks for clarifying. All I can say is the Sgt. Karka khuks I have are very well made, so hope this was just an anomaly.

Norm
 
Good info and the Sarge DOES make a pretty khukuri.

I look forward to seeing 'em, especially with Sher on sabbatical or whatever (back to his land homestead- I guess).

Ad Astra
 
I had a Bura 12"+ Sirupati villager with what looked like a small crack, a tiny one, very close to the tip. My solution was to reshape the blade with a file - the knife became a dropped point, and it was pretty. The top of the blade was pretty soft. I had to file down about 1/4 inch off of the top end, very near the tip of the blade, to get rid of the tiny crack. It ended up as a 12" knife.

The result was so nice that when I offered my daugter a choice of Khukuris - An Amtrack 15" regular sirupati or the Bura villager, she picked the Bura.

Her friends all said that it was the biggest knife that they had ever seen - a monster knife!

I suspect that the steel could have had a small flaw that could be revealed when water was poured, or what I thought was a crack might have just been a small fold mark in the steel.

It is recycled steel, that has been beaten and folded. In the case of my Bura Sirupati, I don't really know if it had a crack or not - - but it is still a nice knife. I would never want to return it.
 
Anything handmade can have flaws which inspectors can miss. The quality is there in 99% of the product. The other 1% I am willing to take a chance with.

Ice
 
Ad Astra said:
Good info and the Sarge DOES make a pretty khukuri.

I look forward to seeing 'em, especially with Sher on sabbatical or whatever (back to his land homestead- I guess).

Ad Astra
Click to expand...

Maybe I misunderstood. There are two Sarges we refer to. Sgt Karka, Nepali Gurka, has his own shop and puts up some fine knives thru HI BirGorka. They have the sales and distribution in place.
SARGE - see the SARGE post.

Hope this will clarify for some that weren't around when SARGE was really active on the forum. He hopefully is safe and close to retirement. He almost did once, but duty to Country pulled him to reenlist.
 
My apologies for any confusion. Yangdu - thanks for insisting on clarifying it.


Like Bill, I just assumed.....



Let the record state: My thoughts/feelings about H.I. have not changed, nor have my thoughts/feelings about Sgt. Karka.

A mistake is a mistake...I make 'em too. My interest in Snoopy's blade was not to put anybody to shame.....I'm pretty sure I communicated that....but, if there's anybody that disagrees, feel free to post about it.

My interest was curiosity alone. That's it. Nothing more or less. How often do we get the opportunity to purposefully break a khukuri? especially a good-looking one.


Bill - there is no "action" needed regarding Sgt. Karka's work. Please don't communicate anything back to Pala. It's just a screw up.....happens. Like you've said.....1 in 100. I'm sure we've seen at least a hundred of his pieces pass through here recently. Bound to happen.


One more thing - I abused the knife to make it break. Would it have failed "eventually"? Yes. But waaaaaaaaay down the road (think years). The beating I gave it was severe - intended to break it.



Bill Martino said:
Free again
Click to expand...

I know exactly what you mean.....most times having peace is more valuable than "being right".
 
Green Ice said:
Anything handmade can have flaws which inspectors can miss. The quality is there in 99% of the product. The other 1% I am willing to take a chance with.

Ice
Click to expand...


Yup. And after all, it is just stuff.

~ B
 
I, for one, was grateful for the postmortem examination. To be honest I was thinking it was HI too, but what the heck...if the warranty is honored, I don't mind if it's a 2/3 failure, let alone a 1/100 (or more) failure.

I've been holding off on it because I don't think UB needs the stress (and neither do I, really), but I've been seriously considering going through a car door with a chiruwa AK. I'm pretty sure the AK would do it but I think that there would be significant damage. If that's not gross abuse, I don't know what is. :)
 
Satori said:
....... I've been seriously considering going through a car door with a chiruwa AK. I'm pretty sure the AK would do it but I think that there would be significant damage. If that's not gross abuse, I don't know what is. :)
Click to expand...
Depends how old the car :D

Although I wouldn't recommend dismantling cars with a khuk
most the sheet metal in cars now-days is pretty thin.
Once upon a time I would lay on a car hood to look at the stars.
Now I worry about leaning against the fender.

Once chopped up an aluminum gutter with a khuk.
And some wallboard.


~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<>call me 'Dean' :)-FYI-FWIW-IIRC-JMO-M2C-YMMV-TIA-YW-GL-HH-HBD-IBSCUTWS-tWotBGUaDUaDUaD
<> Tips <> Baha'i Prayers Links --A--T--H--D
 
When I showed my uncle my newish HI kobra and told him about the warranty he laughed and said "oh I can break it". My dad talked to him later and he had planned on putting it in a vice and hitting it with a hammer. If it were a chiruwa then I might have concented as long as I had veto rights on any "test".
 
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