• The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
    Price is $300 ea (shipped within CONUS). Now open to the forums as a whole. If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges. If there are customs issues? On you.

    User Name
    Serial number request

14" Chitlange versus 14" Mutiny

Joined
Aug 16, 2013
Messages
101
14" Chitlange (430 g) compared to the 14" Mutiny (445g) has a 15 grams difference according to the website.
Yet they are completely different kukri.
What would be the difference between the two in:

cut?
chop?
stab?
balance?

Thanks!
 
It's an interesting comparison.

To me the 14" chitlange feels a bit more solid- potentially it has a slightly further forward POB but I couldn't confirm that.

While the weights are similar the mutiny has a broader blade and belly with a leaner grind to match. This gives it much higher cutting efficiency and a deeper chop.

Due to the narrowness of a chitlange and the similar weight most of this weight is actually in the upper grind. The spine is thicker along the majority of the length and the bevel ridge is also a lot thicker. This makes it feel more solid in hand and gives a lot of lateral stiffness. It feels more like a big stabby, slashy knife rather than a machete which the mutiny can feel a little more like. This thicker bevel ridge on the chitlange works with the shorter bevel and non blended bevel style to reduce performance in deep cuts vs the mutiny.

Where the chitlange pulls ahead though is in stabbing. The tip is much more aligned for a strong and easy thrust, the profile of the tip is WAY leaner and the spine thickness in the tip area is quite lean- it's quite a severe tip and is by far the meanest tip in our traditional lineup.

The straightness of the chitlange is also a notable difference- this appeals to many who are used to european blades and I'm certain gives simpler handling for these folks.

I'm of the view that the chitlange is more of a 14" combat knife with camp knife capabilities. The reduced cutting performance isn't as important in this setting but the lateral stiffness is. It's similar to something like a kabar in this aspect- martially focused but with some camp capability. The mutiny I think can do equally well in both martial and outdoors applications.

Take care,
Andrew and the team at Kailash
 
Last edited:
No worries at all. I think that it also touches on a question of how much important performance geometry is for a martial blade in a contemporary context.
While there are obviously examples of sabres, lonswords, falchions etc that are very fierce, I think that if we look at a lot of currently issued edged weapons as well as some historical edged sidearms (later khukuris, combat knives, bayonets, pesh kabz etc) the answer would be that it often isn't that crucial, particularly on smaller, more thrust centric blades. Bigger, more powerful and faster blades are capable of delivering cuts, slashes and chops that sink deeply enough that the upper grind can become a big source of cutting resistance. On smaller, stabbier blades the depth of cut gained from a slash, chop etc is not as extreme and so the geometry at the apex and just behind the edge is more relevant.
 
I haven't had a huge amount of time with the 12" but do have a 14" that I love. They both feel good in hand- fast, lethal and with a nice gentle heft. For practical tasks they're both very usable lengths and are capable of similar tasks. I think that the 14" makes more sense for someone coming from a martial background- just a bit longer, more swordlike and exciting and a touch less knifelike. I think that for actual contemporary military style applications though that the 12" makes sense. Handier for smaller camp tasks, a bit lighter for carry (good when not being used much) and also more compact and manouveable for fighting in close quarters. I imagine that the tip of the 14" could be a bit far away for last ditch efforts while grappling and could make swings a bit clumsy in corridors.
 
Back
Top