your first glimpse of a khukuri?

J

Jebadiah_Smith

Joined
Jul 28, 2004
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878
I remember the first time I saw one. It was in an illustrated survival book. It was used throughout, and was described in some detail, just usual stuff like "it is forged from a truck spring" and "its good for chopping branches". It had a buffalo horn handle, but at the time I figured that it was wrapped in electrical tape. I was enthralled with it. Then I read "Dracula", who is killed with a khukuri, after that I knew I had to have one. I went for a very long time passing up the tourist models and cold steel knock offs. Then I stumbled onto HI.

How did the rest of you psychos wind up here?
 
I had a boyhood buddy with whom I used to terrorize the neighborhood. His father not only had a bar in the "Rec room", but he had this really cool knife hanging on the wall that we were not allowed to touch (right). I remember it very well...it was a BAS.

We made more than a few trips to the local woods with that knife and it never failed *nor* tasted either of us. I think it had some good karma and knew that we were not the enemy. I know we both cut ourselves and each other with every other knife, sharp edge, dart (don't ask), BB gun etc at every opportunity...but never this knife!

The leather was fairly beaten, obviously having lived to it's potential...and to our awkward hands, tricky to get back into the scabbard (especially when we heard footsteps coming down the stairs).

Oddly, it's the only common model I *don't* currently own...

edited to add: His father was an ex Army man and the blade was a war trophy, not a purchase.
 
I've always appreciated a good knife at work. "Good," to me, meant that it would last a month or two under my sort of use before breaking. I picked up a CS Voyager at a gun show at a friend's recommendation; we're going on a year and a half, the Voyager and I, and many limbs have been snipped, ammo crates smashed, ammo cans pried open, rags cut, loose threads on uniforms clipped, shotgun shells pried out of shotguns (after having been loaded backwards), stuck/split casings pried out of rifles/machingeguns, 7.62mm cartridges delinked, and one tire completely sawed through (including the belt) since I got it. I have a great appreciation for this knife. I came across their catalog. The catalog depicted a khuk-shaped machete. I purchased one and was impressed with that. I did some homework. I wound up here. I did some more homework, placed my first order (16.5" chiruwa AK, AK Bowie) and became one of the believers.

There should be a Napoleon Sword waiting for me at the post office on Monday. As much as I'd like for Bura to make me an M1913 saber, the Napoleon is close and should do just fine. Hopefully, by this time next week, I'll be singing the praises of their swords as well as their knives.

I still buy my folders from CS though. ;)
 
I didn't even particularly like knives- I had 5 or 6 pocket knives and a couple military style fighters I'd sometimes carry into cat country in lieu of a firearm.
I was looking for a throwing hawk. Right before I got one, I stopped by the khuk forum. I started reading. I got a khuk with my small funds instead of a forged hawk and never looked back.


munk
 
Backcountry Nepal, 1979. When I got back to Kathmandu I bought one.

Gave it to my Aikido sensei in '83 or so.

A few (khukriless) decades later I discovered HI.
 
Jebadiah_Smith said:
How did the rest of you psychos wind up here?
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It's been so long ago I don't know when I first discovered kukris. I was like a lot of other folks here and bought one of the cheapies from Atlanta Cutlery although I knew what a real one was like from having seen one at a customer's house one evening.
One day shortly after discovering BFC I was browseing through the forums and saw the HI Forum and made the mistake of entering and then buying my first HI Khukuri.:rolleyes: :D ;)
 
The first one I actually owned was (blush!) a "lion-butt" that I bought in a pawnshop in Columbus, Ohio, in 1966. The sheath fell apart in a few months, but I kept the khukuri as a lesson. It was even chrome-plated. :rolleyes:
 
Thomas Linton said:
The first one I actually owned was (blush!) a "lion-butt" that I bought in a pawnshop in Columbus, Ohio, in 1966. The sheath fell apart in a few months, but I kept the khukuri as a lesson. It was even chrome-plated. :rolleyes:
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Hey, TAL, are you sure you didn't sell 2 of them to me?
 
I was looking for a Nessmuk-like kit, and asked about the axes in a Bladeforums section. Cliff Stamp suggested I check khukuris. I found a "Gorkha Army 123" model on eBay very inexpensively. I was then directed to the Cantina.

The Gorkha Army khuk is 13 inches, probably some tourist type, but not a bad little blade. After warnings about handle problems, I wrapped the handle in trot line, spar-varnished it about 20 times, and have never had a problem. I did make a buckskin wrap for the handle to fill my hand a bit more and to ease the roughness of the line wrap. Works a charm.

My first H.I. is/was a Bura 15 A.K., now gracing someone else's hip. It was all I have ever needed in a khuk. The Bura memory still fills me with awe. It arrived beautiful, and only became more so as I used it.
 
I was given the time life series on WWII by my parents when in grade school.

in "The War in the Desert", was the pic below.

Way too cool! :D


Tom
 

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The first khukuri I ever saw was either in one of the US Calvary or Smokey Mountain Knife Works catalogs. I also remember seeing a few of the early magazine ads for HI back in the mid-90's or earlier.

Bob
 
Knives and Knifemakers, Sid Latham, 1973, Winchester Press. Mine is the first edition.

The chapter on Fighting Knives, pages 80-81 described how a revolt was put down in Brunei while the Sultan was away in England. The Sultanate was independent, yet remained under British Protection, and a force of Ghurkas from Sarawak was alerted, flown in and doubletimed into Bruneitown, formed a line against the rebels, and drew their khukris - standing in place. The rebels broke, the Ghurkas doubletimed back to the planes, and returned to Sarawak. Total time from liftoff to landing back home under 2 hours.

That wasn't my first exposure to the khukri but it was an indelible one.
 
I'd seen the, ahem, Cold Steel kukri like objects around, and thought they were nifty shapes and the like, but that phase passed for a while, and then I started looking around for extreme reviews of knives, and, in the process, stumbled across Cliff Stamp's page. It seemed like Himalayan Imports khukuris were good performers, so I decided to take a look at the site... It went uphill, or downhill, depending on how you look at it, from there.
 
My brother-in-law was heavily into swords so I was used to him bringing over his latest acquisition for me to admire whenever he would visit. This time he brought a box full of about ten HI khukuris of various configurations he had recently bought and laid them out on a table - I bought my first WWII shortly thereafter. That was about 1 1/2 years and about twenty khukuris ago.....
 
Redlands, CA- I didn't think the folks allowed you a knife of that size! Just kidding- I lived in SB and Riverside.



munk
 
munk said:
Redlands, CA- I didn't think the folks allowed you a knife of that size! Just kidding- I lived in SB and Riverside.



munk
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Hell, I lived just across the freeway over in Yucaipa. Used too go over to Redlands at a restraunt/bar/grill/dance club that on Thursday nights served a whopping 24 ounce Porterhouse Steak that would melt in your mouth! This was in the mid 70's and the steak and all the fixins was $4.95 IIRC.!:eek: :rolleyes: :D
Can't recall the name of the place though.:grumpy:
Also liked too go too Ming's, Bing's or something like that in San Berdoo, great chinese place!:D
 
I had wanted one from about 10yrs old. My uncle was in the war and he told me about the Gurkha's and there kukri. He said that he seen them cut brush and small tree's down for fire wood. My uncle said that the gurka's would cut the heads off of the enemy's or spit there gut wide open. he showed me pic's of gurkha's standing with there kukri's . I wanted one then but my parents said no (hell no). :D but when I was looking for some kukri's all other had a you buy it you brake it your on your own thing but not HI so I but stricky from UB when ever I get the chance. I now happy but not content I want more kukri's :D and am slowly taking care of the content problem.
 
Aardvark said:
Hey, TAL, are you sure you didn't sell 2 of them to me?
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Given that I have yet to sell a khukuri of any kind, I'm sure. (And my first khuk is not for sale, however humble it may be.)

If you're in the market, they are on eBay every day. :D
 
Yeah, my parents wouldnt let me have a khukuri for a while. I had about convinced them when the Today show had a video of an Al Qaeda training camp showing terrorists brandishing khuks. I had to wait many years for them to forget that ;) .
 
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