How Gurkha House Came To Be

C

Craig Gottlieb

Joined
Mar 8, 1999
Messages
1,760
In June of 1998, My wife Marya and I (we had just been married) were living in San Diego, enjoying "our"
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last months in the Marine Corps. One day at work, the “duty” yelled, “Sir, there’s a Capt. Cross on the phone for you.” Well, Capt. Cross was one of Fox Battery’s old officers who I’d served with in Okinawa. He was calling from Bangkok to say hi.

We spoke for a few minutes, and he updated us (several Marines had picked up other extensions) on his exploits as a Marine Security Guard Embassy inspector in that area of the world. After everybody had hung up, he told me that he’d sent me a present that he’d bought while visiting the Embassy in Kathmandu. Well, I thanked him, and soon forgot about it.

About a week before Marya and I were taking off on Terminal Leave, I got a box from Cross. Inside was the most beautiful “Gurkha Knife” I’d ever seen. I’d been collecting knives for years, and had always thought that “Gurkha” knives were pieces of crap, because that’s all I had been exposed to. Well, what Cross didn’t know was that Marya and I were looking for something we could do together after I left the Marine Corps. Well, this was it.

I emailed Cross, and he put me in contact with a Gunnery Sergeant at the embassy, who I later contacted. He promised to find out the name of the guy from whom Cross had bought the Khukuri, and put me in contact with him. That’s how I first met Lalit.

We corresponded via email, and I eventually put in an order for one of about 6 different kinds of khukuris (I now knew the proper name for them). The funny thing is, our relationship with Lalit was blessed by a gut instinct of trust and confidence that we all granted each other – on faith alone. He sent me the samples without me sending him a penny! He gave me vague instructions on how to get the money to him.

In August, Marya and I took a MAC flight to Frankfurt, bummed around Eruope for a couple of weeks, and then flew a commercial flight to Finland (Marya is half-Finnish) on tickets bought with frequent flyer miles. While there, I desperately tried to get Lalit’s money to him. Can you imagine trying to wire money from Finland to Nepal? It was quite a fiasco - dollars to Marrka to Rupies. I must have spent about a hundred bucks on the phone talking to Lalit’s bank, trying to get something called a “swift” number (basically, a routing number), which in Finland, was called a “fire” number. Of course, we were dealing in THREE languages, and somehow, by some miracle, the money got to Lalit!

More tomorrow – my fingers are tired!




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Craig Gottlieb
Gurkha House
Blade Forums Sponsor
 
Craig,
Got to ask, when were you on Okinawa??? I was there on Kadena from 89-92. Made it to the PI and several other fun filled places on more than one occasion
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Broke a cold steel kurki in Kadena's ammo area on a FTX durning a typhoon and then picked up the Randall #14 as was really dissapointed in the CS Kurki.

Have always been wanting to try another Khukuri but have never found one I was really intersted in until the WWIII came along.
 
We returned to California to pack our things in preparation for the move to Virginia (Marya had taken a great job there, and I was preparing to switch out my cammies for some "house husband" garb). When all the sudden, it hit me - where were my khukuris?

I should backstep here a minute and say that I had arranged for an old family friend, a South African named David, to check my messages and pick up the khukuris from wherever they'd end up. Incidentally, David is a guy I respect tremendously - he bought a huge sailboat for a song at a drug auction, sold it for a huge profit, and turned around and bought a slightly smaller boat with his "winnings" and now spends his life sailing around the world with his wife. When they run out of money, they pull into port and get jobs to build a nestegg for the next leg of their journey - not bad, eh?

Well, while in Finland, I'd spoken with him and he had told me that he was going to pick the khukuris up, but that he needed a letter of authorization, which I faxed him.

Back to the present: I'm standing in my kitchen on the phone with David, and he tells me where they khukuris could be found - under the sink. There, I found a red metal toolbox wrapped in a hundred kinds of tape with my name horrendously butchered magic markered across the tape. It was the quintessential "package from abroad" that looked like it was sent from the Kasbha.

Inside were the following items:

1 World War (wood handle)
1 Service Number One
1 Mini Jungle (wood handle)
1 Kothimora (engraved)
1 Engraved Presentation (patent leather)

Also there were a bunch of complicated air waybills, customs forms, freight forwarder receipts - stuff I couldn't make heads or tails of.

Having no time to do anything with the khukuris or the papers, we packed them back up in the red box and loaded them onto the moving truck.

Fast forward one week later, after my wife, my dog, and my 2 koi fish (in the back of my trunk sloshing around in a makeshift plastic tank that I designed for them) had arrived safely in our new home. We spent the week before she started work sanding the floors, fixing the plumbing, tending to the yard.

Then, the morning of November 3rd came around, and Marya left for her first day at work. I went jogging, came back, showered and shaved, put on some clothes, and sat down at my computer, drumming my fingers against my desk and staring at the blank screen. Okay - this was it. I had to try to figure out a way to make some money out of the new company "Cystern" we had formed in California (for info on why our company is named Cystern, visit our website (www.cystern.com).

Amidst other projects that I started (most of which failed miserably), I set out to market the khukuris. At the time, I had no idea that there was a great community of khukuri-lovers with whom I could interact, so I thought my only recourse was to wholesale them to a large catalog. So, I contacted two popular "weapons" catalogs (you know the type - the ones that sell a myriad of different "reproduction" and surplus edged weapons), and made an appointment to see one of them (they were local here in Alexandria). I also send some of my samples out to the other, larger firm for consideration. My hope (before I caught khukuri-itis and was thereafter doomed
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) was to make a big hit and sell 5000 khukuris in one shot. Fortunately, the powers that be would change my course (for the better, as hindsight has shown).


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Craig Gottlieb
Gurkha House
Blade Forums Sponsor
 
Wow! Blackdog and Shrike9 at Kadena! Being the yougin that I am, I was just there in 95. I lived at Camp Hansen (surrounded by Kin - you know the place
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).

But I went to Kadena about ever week for something - as Camp Hansen had only a shoebox sized PX).



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Craig Gottlieb
Gurkha House
Blade Forums Sponsor
 
Talk about bringing back old memories, made more than one trip to the brig on Camp Hansen with a prisoner in the back seat.

When Gate 2 and BC street got old we would make a trip up to Hansen and visit the clubs there
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Shrike: Know what that wink is for (but things have changed a lot in Kin - they threw out all the trash except for the Shangrala).

That brig is not a fun place (used to go there when I was camp CDO).

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Craig Gottlieb
Gurkha House
Blade Forums Sponsor
 
This is the final chapter in this episode of How Gurkha House Came To Be.

Well, if I told you how much I was going to let the two distributors with whom I was negotiating have the khukuris for, you'd faint. Better yet, if I told you, and you knew that they turned me down, you'd pull a Curley Stooge and faint twice.

But anyway, I got rejected by both distributors, and became very depressed about the whole thing. I'd been emailing Lalit, and we'd built up quite a friendship. I hated to let him down.

Well, I threw the khukuris I had up on Ebay for $25.00 hoping that somebody would pay me that for them, and the response was overwhelming! I think they sold for an average of $90.00. And the customers who bought the original samples were ecstatic over their new toys! One customer "took me aside" (via email, of course), and schooled me up on khukuris, teaching me about zone-hardening, tangs, forging, etc.

Well, I was out of Khukuris, and I figured I'd better order some more. So I emailed Lalit and ordered a larger quantity of Service Number One khukuris. I apologized for such a small order (we had been talking about a 5000 khukuri order for the distributors I had been talking with). His response:

"No, don't apologize - I'm just happy to be doing business with you - however small the order."

The order came, I built a website, and I found Bill's forum. There, I learned more about khukuris, Nepal, knives, sharpening, testing, and just about every other topic under the sun.

When we first started selling that first order of Service Number Ones, we pretty much gave a khukuri the once over, wrapped it in newspaper, and sent it out - covered in grease, unpolished - and untested. As I quickly learned that this was not a good way to do business, we started to inspect each blade, test each blade, polish each blade. We also started to make a list of ways that Lalit could improve the khukuris I was getting. Among other things, the main complaints I had were:

1) Sheaths often didn't fit well.
2) Handles were not consistently "blem-free."
3) Chakma and Karda were very roughly hewn.

With each new order, the quality began to improve. We added the "Go Ha" mark to the knives (most of them), started to expand our line (we had a complaint at first that "we only carried three types of khukuris").

Our big break came when Bladeforums gave us space in the non-specific manufacturer's forum. Then, Blade Magazine tested some of our khukuris and published the results.

Today, we filled our second order from Chesapeake Knife and Tool - they carry the SN1 and the Deluxe World War in their stores now.

And now, as we continue to grow, I want to make a promise: that we will always strive to provide as much personal attention to our friends/customers as we did when we were young.

I also promise to keep improving our line of khukuris - both in quality and variety. Our last shipment contained some of the nicest khukuris yet - greatly improved sheaths, straighter and better blades than I have previously seen, and the newer styles (new to me, but ancient to Nepal). As Lalit continues to work wonders in Nepal, we will try our best to represent his Kamis and their artwork.

As a side note, it's funny - I've received two solicitations from Pakistani manufacturers who found our website and virtually begged us to let them make our khukuris. I politely told them why that could never work - but they just don't get it
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.




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Craig Gottlieb
Gurkha House
Blade Forums Sponsor
 
Khukuries are made in Nepal.It pleases me that Craig gives credit to Bill`s forums.
 
Craig, I believe the secret to success is what we Louisianians call "lagniappe." It's a Cajun word that means "a little something extra." In other words, show the customer that he's appreciated by giving him just a little bit more than his usual money's worth, and he'll keep coming back. It's kinda like the old "baker's dozen" -- if the customer paid for 12 items, the smart baker gave him 13. And, Craig, you seem to be on the right track with your focus on quality and customer satisfaction.

I wish you success, because it can only mean good things for all us khuk-obsessed types.
 
Steve,I spent some time in la vue carre.Lagnieppe is cool.Out standing idea.t makes you feel good.
 
So, THAT is the origin of a "baker's dozen." Customer service is something I try to give because I am such a hard -ss about receiving it. I am known to both stiff waiters AND leave 40% tips (I used to be a waiter).



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Craig Gottlieb
Gurkha House
Blade Forums Sponsor
 
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