SN1

Nick: Hello, and welcome to the forum. Thanks for the interesting info in your post, and I hope you'll feel the freedom to visit often. Guys like me without such knowledge can learn lots from you.

Johan: Have you been holding out on us? A little ivory khukuri is a pretty nifty piece to have ferreted away. By all means, do send the pic to Craig! Do you by some chance have a little Kothimora secret as well?!

Always the last to know....Dan
(Just 'cause I'm a little paranoid doesn't mean you're not out to get me!)
 
CRAIG, may I suggest, with your approval, that we "register" this SN1 topic as a "GH Bladeforums project" or even "GH project" (if you prefer)? Then it can be known among us as the "GH SN1 project". Surely other "projects" exist already: eg. the cheetlang topic etc! (BTW, we need to start wrapping them up, one at a time!)

Looking back at the progress we made so far with this SN1 topic, I feel the last word has defininetly not yet been said. We still have not come one iota closer to the question (BTTT): "When was the wartime issue khukuri replaced with the smaller SN1?"

While we are waiting for the answer to hopefully crop up, let me try to whet your appetite further with the following relevant information (for those who don't know it already):

As the GH supplier is the official khukuri supplier to all Brigade of Gurkhas units, Service No 1's (SN1's) and Service Ceremonial's are the only two khukuries they are allowed to stamp with the word "Nepal" and the year of issue. They produce these types of khukuries in whatever numbers they need in order to meet not only the Brigade's orders but also to cater for all buyers. Just prior to recruiting season, which normally takes place in November, the supplier is informed by the Brigade Headquarters how many service khukuries they require and the supplier is obliged to meet their demand in time. Then these khukuries are distributed to newly joined recruits in Nepal prior to their departure
to the UK for infantry recruit training.

It is legal practice to sell service khukuris to tourists or any other
buyers when they visit the supplier's shops.

Therefore the SN1 I bought is just one of those service khukuris made by the supplier in 1999, some of which were also sent to the Brigade of Gurkha soldiers. The supplier does NOT sell "1999" stamped khukuries to any buyer in other years, because then it is not relevant.

The Nepaliese soldiers (so called "Gurkhas") not only join the British Brigade of Gurkhas, but also go to the Indian Army and of course the Nepalese Army. No matter which Nepali man joins which army, it is all up to the individual. But those who do join the Brigade of Gurkhas get the supplier's service khukuries with stamped blades. (The supplier does supply khukuries to the Nepalese Army in Nepal, but not the stamped blades ones.)

So there it is. How are we doing? What about that last nagging question?

BERK: PLEASE can't you consider scanning the pics you mentioned in your reply of 22 April and put it here for us to look at? You mentioned the books "Gurkha Rifles" and "the Gurkhas" which showed pics of khuks relevant to this topic. Please, Berk!

...Gold is for women - steel is for a man...
 
Yeah, Lt. Dan, I've been holding out on you about the little ivory khuk. No, I don't have a little kothimora secret (yet), but you know, I had this uncle, three times removed, who was a sergeant in the 13th Duke of Wales's Own Gurkha Rifles fighting in Bhutan in '43. His squad went missing in the hills after a particularly heavy barrage, and they only managed to retrieve some of them six months later. My uncle was very recalcitrant to divulge much about his activities during this time. It's almost like a family legend now after all these years, that it is probable (from what various family members could gather) that he was laid up with serious wounds and cared for by village locals. One of these, it seemed, was a very extraordinary old guy, a Bhutanese kami, who made beautiful MODELS of khukuris (not real ones), as he suffered from a debilitating handicap. He used fancy hardwoods found in the area, as well as water buffalo horn, bone, and ivory when he could find it. So when my uncle, who was very likeable when he wanted to be, was well enough to proceed, the kami presented him with the little ivory khuk that I now fortunately have. Will you forgive me for holding out on you, buddy?
 
There seems to be a sensation of considerable lower extremity traction while reading your last post, Johan. Wouldn't be doing any lowland real estate speculation, now would you?
 
Johan,
Here is the rifleman from Borneo, c. 1960, as depicted in The Gurkha Rifles, color plates by Michael Roffe, from the Men-at-Arms Series:
View

Will try to post the other pic as time permits.
Berk
 
THANKS BERK!

Lt. Dan, regarding your latest contributory effort I am experiencing a tendency to utilise a digital extremity to effect relief of miniscule sensory stimili occurring on my cranial circumference where degenerating follicular appendages habitually germinate.
 
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