Yet another Village report

A

Andre Simpson

Joined
Apr 19, 1999
Messages
122
Well my Village khukuri arrived last Friday about two hours before I was due set off on a camping trip. The process of loading up the car was immediately put on hold while I sat down to have a look at my first khukri.

Uncle Bill's descritpion of "ugly" was spot on, this thing's about as pretty as ten miles of bad road,
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but at the same time it has a real functional look about it.

After a few practice swings I found that the handle was a bit short and the top of the butt cap would dig into my hand - easily fixed with a few swipes of a file.

I got a chance to test this baby out the next day. On this camp, apart from myself there were four other adults and 37 kids aged 14 - 17. We had a camp site in a local forest that we had paid the local Parks and Wildlife service for exclusive use of for the weekend.

Just before lunch a car pulled up - music blaring, throwing dust everwhere, being a real pain. One of the other adults, a serving police officer, went over to talk to them and explain nicely the situation and ask them to leave. The occupants in the car started to argue the point and get a bit abusive. While this was going on I was inside the hut, and was unaware of the argument, and decided that it would be a good time to checkout the performance of my new knife.

I grabbed a few pieces of pine about 5in in diameter and 10in long and went outside to try splitting them, unknown to me the first chunk of wood had dry rot in the centre. As this was my first use of a khukuri I gave this piece of wood my best shot and swung at it as hard as I could. 'Explode' is about the ony was to descibe the effect, the piece of pine looked like it had been hit by one of Zeus's thunderbolts, it flew into about 15 pieces and the tip of the blade embeded itself about an inch into the cutting block.

On seeing this the driver of the car did a double take, stuttered something about finding another place to have a party and took off in a cloud of dust.
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I spent a bit more time testing it out and can say I'm a happy camper.

Finally to Uncle Bill, thanks for the great service, he sent this khukuri to me in Australia with nothing but an email agreement on payment.

A true gentleman, I hope this is the first of many transactions.

Andre


 
Andre, that is a funny story. Sounds like a scene from Crocodile Dundee.

Glad the villager arrived okay. So far, khukuris going to Australia are 100%.

Stay in touch from down under.

Uncle Bill
 
Thats a great story, goes to say "action is louder than words".

I'm always glad to hear how knives perform (good or bad).

Will

[This message has been edited by Will Kwan (edited 30 May 1999).]
 
Will, is your villager holding up okay? So far, I had one report of a tip bending under extreme use but that's the only failure. The tip was bent back straight and the knife is still working. I can't recall who posted this but he did explain that this test was an extreme one and compared it to Cliff's testing. I guess that's not bad for an ugly $35 knife -- one out of 13 or 14 with a tip bend. And some have taken some pretty serious treatment.

Uncle Bill
 
And remember Uncle Bill, that these villagers are 9" blades - halfway in between the "baby" 12" khuks with 7&3/4" or 8" blades and the 15" khuks with their 10" blades.

I love my babies (12" Sirupati and Ang Khola) for the same reason I love my mouseguns (22, 25, 32). They are awful handy to have around when you don't happen to have a gun or a knife.
 
You're right, Rusty.

We may be gettting in some more villagers in June. Kami is headed up to the Solu to rebuild the Buddhist gompa next to his home which suffered damage from a recent earthquake. Both homes survived the quake okay. His son, Gelbu, will be directing traffic at shop 2 during his absence. Kami will be on the lookout for some village models while he is traveling so maybe. I fervently hope he can find a couple of old Sherpa style khukuris but I think this is dreaming on my part.

Uncle Bill
 
No problems Uncle Bill. There is a bit of wobble on the butt cap. I did not examine this much since I would have had to wiggle it, thereby possibly forcing it loose.

So far, yard clearing. Chopped down some 0.25-2" limbs on a tree that was getting too close to the power lines. I also, chopped the limbs to a smaller size, on a chopping board, to fit a yard bags. The board was marked up by the khukuri.

Tried stabbing the village khukuri into 2x4's and 4x4's for fun. I can thrust it into the 4x4's quite solidly. The 2x4's just go flying, I need more practice. This is really fun. The tip has held up fine.

I showed it around a bit and everyone is surprised how comfortable the handle is. The handle is really short but something makes about the shape makes it a comfortable handle. Also, everyone who tried it was happy with its performance.

Will
 
Thanks for field report, Will. These are always valuable. I really didn't have any doubts about the villager. The village kamis know what they are doing and they are not striving to make a beautiful knife but one that works and will keep on working for a long time.

Uncle Bill
 
double click -- sorry.

Uncle Bill

[This message has been edited by Bill Martino (edited 31 May 1999).]
 
I think one great advantage of getting a Villager is that I have now had a chance to handle and use a khukuri at a reasonable cost.

With this experiance - I have found the handle and blade a bit to small for my liking - I can make a more informed choice on my next one.

Also, if anyone has a Villager, a 15in Ak and a WWII model I would love to se a photo of them together to see the comparison in blade and handle size.

Andre
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'To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.' "Ulysses" by Tennyson.
 
Discovered a handy use for the villager's smaller size blade today - installing some heavy indoor-outdoor carpet in the trunk of my old car, had to cut a circle out of one side to go around the fuel filler-voila, villager nimbly cuts circles in tough carpet with a twist of the old wrist! Not a task for the 20" Sirupati.
 
I have the three. Too bad, I left my villager in my camp in Maine. I can sent you perhaps a comparison of the AK and WWII although I believe Bill already have those on his site.

sing
 
Sing.

Thanks for the offer. I have read up on the WWII version on this forum and I get the feeling that it would 'fit' me better than the 15in AK I was planning on getting.

Andre

------------------
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
'Ulysses' by Tennyson.

 
Andre,

The handles of my WWII (around 17") and the 15" AK are about the same. The villager handle is definitely smaller but it is not a problem for may small hand. It fits just fine. Now if you have the AK think of how that handle fits you. If it's just right, you may not like a villager.

My comparison of the AK and the WWII after some light use (I dont' want to cut saplings that I don't want to cut just for the sake of cutting) is that the WWII seems faster in the swing but I think the AK outchops it because of slightly more (but compact) mass.

sing
 
Thanks, sing and Berk, for input. The villager weighs in at about one pound. The WWII is 1.25 pounds give or take a couple of ounces, and the AK is 1.5 pounds with the kami tolerance. Chopping performance is a function of weight and length so the villager is the baby of the bunch in both length and weight so will not perform like it's bigger (and more beautiful) brothers. But for its size it is a decent performer and a very tough little knife.

Uncle Bill
 
Update on the villagers. I've received some feedback on almost all the villagers now and the basic comment is as they were sold -- "ugly but tough." Major complaint is the token buttcap, rough and not strong enough. Not suprising. Most village khukuris don't have a buttcap. The buttcap and decent scabbard were additions the kami put on because he knew Kami Sherpa would be sending them to the US.

Uncle Bill
 
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