So theres an antiques dealer in a nearby town, and buried deep in the junk at the back of his store are these three khukuris. One is obviously a tourist piece. One is BAS size and shape, but with an aluminum handle. The third is about 19" OAL, small handle, forward curving blade, ugly & tatty but, far as I could tell without running a file down the edge, a genuine old village khukuri
Trouble with being broke is, you cant pay cash... So I go home, find a boring old British officers sword I never liked much anyway, go back to the antiques place, and do a trade, the sword for the BAS and the nineteen-incher.
Get home, test with file. The BAS, which Id been sure was a genuine piece, turns out to be soft as butter. The 19" doesnt look promising; Id already noticed that the edge was rolled over about 3" hiltwards of the center of percussion. But a few taps with a crowned hammer over the anvil bick straighten it out just fine, and the file tells an encouraging story - front and back ends of the blade arent anything special, but the CoP is beautifully hard.
At this point, enter My Very Good Friend The Mailman; and hes got with him my eagerly-anticipated HI 25" 2lb sirupati.
The 2 old rattlers, which would normally be the high spot of my day, are forgotten. Out of the box comes - Well, got to admit, my first instinct was to send it back. NOT because it wasnt good enough; quite the reverse. The 25" is quite obviously a sword, a weapon; you just have to draw it and feel the balance to know this. As such, its wasted on me. A weapon of this quality should belong to a skilled martial arts practitioner, not a guy who chops down trees.
Vital statistics -
OAL 25"; blade 19"
Weight; a mere 1lb 15oz
Spine thickness; at bolster 0.375"; at bend 0.325"; at tip, just before point taper, 0.225"
Width; at bolster 1.450"; at bend 1.725"; at center of percussion 1.750"
Edge bevel width 0.625" constant from bolster to tip; max thickness of edge bevel ie at top 0.175" (area between top of bevel & spine is lightly fullered)
Center of percussion centers at 4 3/4" from tip
Point of balance; smack on at the bend. Perfect.
Firstl impressions -
*Blade* is mirror finished, straight on spine & edge; lengthways distal taper is constant & well executed. Grind quality is poor - look down the blade and you can see waves & wibbles.
*Edge* is pretty darned hard, according to my pet file, and *thin* (see above, under bolster width/thickness) Grind is flat rather than the usual cannel/teardrop. Pretty sharp straight out of the box.
*Handle* is 6" long - perfect length, IMHO, for my little girly hands - and way too thick. Finish is a dull brick red, no grain or figure visible.
*Details*; scabbard well made and a good fit, not too loose, not too tight. Best karda Ive ever owned - hard, sharp, fine shape, decent size. Chakma softer than the blade, therefore useless.
Step One; take rasps, files and sandpaper, and slim up the handle so I can get my hand around it. In doing so, find a beautiful piece of figured timber under a deep coat of ugly red stain. Cannot understand why anybody would stain up high quality figured hardwood to look like cheap tourist-grade rosewood. Applied first coat of Phillips Walnut Oil; only 364 coats to go...
Step Two will involve a lot of cutting stuff up; adjourn, therefore, to the woods. On a whim, take along the 19" old-timer khuk as well, just to see if itll still do a job of work despite the formerly rolled edge.
Well, the 25" sirupati is a joy to handle; superb balance, quick, agile, easy on my long-suffering tendons and shoulder. Proceed to chop down a 6" diameter ash tree earmarked for clearance; the sirupati lands precisely where its aimed, and sinks in right up to the spine without significant effort. Once tree is felled, inspect that thin edge for signs of roll, twist or chip. No problems, and still every bit as sharp. Proceed to lop off limbs; set aside trunk for splitting into shakes, chop waste up into 10" logs. The khuk is a joy to use, simple as that. Next chore is clearing young holly bushes - theres a carpet of the pesky things in one spot; they spring up, choke out everything else, reach a certain height, and die. This is machete/billhook work, and the sirupati makes it easy.
And yet...
And yet, I keep getting the feeling that its not the right tool for the job; as if theres a little voice telling me, Hey, Im a *sword*, why am I chopping up wood? Also, Im nervous about that thin edge, which was so obviously designed to cut flesh, not lumber. True, it passed the test completely unscathed. But it only takes a lurking stone or a staple buried under the bark...
So; just for the heck of it, I turn to the nineteen-incher. Its an ugly thing. Spine width starts at 0.325, goes down to 0.300 at the bend, tapers evenly to the point; blade is 2.750 wide at CoP, point of balance just after bend. Weight a featherlight 1lb 3 oz. Steel bolster, whittled wood handle, crude (replacement) aluminum buttcap.
Theres this bit in one of the Indiana Jones films, where Indy has to choose the true Holy Grail out of a whole row of cups. All except one are beautiful pieces of gold & silver; the one exception is a simple pottery beaker. Indy chooses the pottery beaker, saying This is the cup of a carpenter.
Yup; and the nineteen-incher is the knife of a poor Himalayan farmer. Rough, plain, meager, and it does the job as though lives depend on it. Any fears I had about the edge holding up to heavy duty felling, lopping, chopping, brush-cutting &c were completely unfounded; I did a hard afternoons work, and come evening I checked the edge; still straight, still sharp. As for light and easy to use; its a cliche, but it felt like an extension of my arm, so perfect in fit & balance I hardly knew it was there.
So; I think Ive got a replacement for the 25" Kobra; but it's not the siruptai. The sirupati is a really fine sword, which (since Im not a martial arts type and have no dragons that need slaying) Ive cleaned, polished, buffed and put respectfully away. It's a thing of beauty, a magnificent piece of design; I cant think how it could be improved, as a sword. Ive only owned it a day and I havent really got any use for it, but I wouldnt want to be parted from it, ever. This ones a keeper. Just owning such a beautiful thing is justification enough.
But as a tool - well, theres absolutely nothing wrong with it, apart from a sense of a racehorse pulling a brewers dray. It just had the bad luck to be upstaged by an old-timer with real attitude whos not ready for retirement while theres still useful work to be done. Does that sound familiar..?
Trouble with being broke is, you cant pay cash... So I go home, find a boring old British officers sword I never liked much anyway, go back to the antiques place, and do a trade, the sword for the BAS and the nineteen-incher.
Get home, test with file. The BAS, which Id been sure was a genuine piece, turns out to be soft as butter. The 19" doesnt look promising; Id already noticed that the edge was rolled over about 3" hiltwards of the center of percussion. But a few taps with a crowned hammer over the anvil bick straighten it out just fine, and the file tells an encouraging story - front and back ends of the blade arent anything special, but the CoP is beautifully hard.
At this point, enter My Very Good Friend The Mailman; and hes got with him my eagerly-anticipated HI 25" 2lb sirupati.
The 2 old rattlers, which would normally be the high spot of my day, are forgotten. Out of the box comes - Well, got to admit, my first instinct was to send it back. NOT because it wasnt good enough; quite the reverse. The 25" is quite obviously a sword, a weapon; you just have to draw it and feel the balance to know this. As such, its wasted on me. A weapon of this quality should belong to a skilled martial arts practitioner, not a guy who chops down trees.
Vital statistics -
OAL 25"; blade 19"
Weight; a mere 1lb 15oz
Spine thickness; at bolster 0.375"; at bend 0.325"; at tip, just before point taper, 0.225"
Width; at bolster 1.450"; at bend 1.725"; at center of percussion 1.750"
Edge bevel width 0.625" constant from bolster to tip; max thickness of edge bevel ie at top 0.175" (area between top of bevel & spine is lightly fullered)
Center of percussion centers at 4 3/4" from tip
Point of balance; smack on at the bend. Perfect.
Firstl impressions -
*Blade* is mirror finished, straight on spine & edge; lengthways distal taper is constant & well executed. Grind quality is poor - look down the blade and you can see waves & wibbles.
*Edge* is pretty darned hard, according to my pet file, and *thin* (see above, under bolster width/thickness) Grind is flat rather than the usual cannel/teardrop. Pretty sharp straight out of the box.
*Handle* is 6" long - perfect length, IMHO, for my little girly hands - and way too thick. Finish is a dull brick red, no grain or figure visible.
*Details*; scabbard well made and a good fit, not too loose, not too tight. Best karda Ive ever owned - hard, sharp, fine shape, decent size. Chakma softer than the blade, therefore useless.
Step One; take rasps, files and sandpaper, and slim up the handle so I can get my hand around it. In doing so, find a beautiful piece of figured timber under a deep coat of ugly red stain. Cannot understand why anybody would stain up high quality figured hardwood to look like cheap tourist-grade rosewood. Applied first coat of Phillips Walnut Oil; only 364 coats to go...
Step Two will involve a lot of cutting stuff up; adjourn, therefore, to the woods. On a whim, take along the 19" old-timer khuk as well, just to see if itll still do a job of work despite the formerly rolled edge.
Well, the 25" sirupati is a joy to handle; superb balance, quick, agile, easy on my long-suffering tendons and shoulder. Proceed to chop down a 6" diameter ash tree earmarked for clearance; the sirupati lands precisely where its aimed, and sinks in right up to the spine without significant effort. Once tree is felled, inspect that thin edge for signs of roll, twist or chip. No problems, and still every bit as sharp. Proceed to lop off limbs; set aside trunk for splitting into shakes, chop waste up into 10" logs. The khuk is a joy to use, simple as that. Next chore is clearing young holly bushes - theres a carpet of the pesky things in one spot; they spring up, choke out everything else, reach a certain height, and die. This is machete/billhook work, and the sirupati makes it easy.
And yet...
And yet, I keep getting the feeling that its not the right tool for the job; as if theres a little voice telling me, Hey, Im a *sword*, why am I chopping up wood? Also, Im nervous about that thin edge, which was so obviously designed to cut flesh, not lumber. True, it passed the test completely unscathed. But it only takes a lurking stone or a staple buried under the bark...
So; just for the heck of it, I turn to the nineteen-incher. Its an ugly thing. Spine width starts at 0.325, goes down to 0.300 at the bend, tapers evenly to the point; blade is 2.750 wide at CoP, point of balance just after bend. Weight a featherlight 1lb 3 oz. Steel bolster, whittled wood handle, crude (replacement) aluminum buttcap.
Theres this bit in one of the Indiana Jones films, where Indy has to choose the true Holy Grail out of a whole row of cups. All except one are beautiful pieces of gold & silver; the one exception is a simple pottery beaker. Indy chooses the pottery beaker, saying This is the cup of a carpenter.
Yup; and the nineteen-incher is the knife of a poor Himalayan farmer. Rough, plain, meager, and it does the job as though lives depend on it. Any fears I had about the edge holding up to heavy duty felling, lopping, chopping, brush-cutting &c were completely unfounded; I did a hard afternoons work, and come evening I checked the edge; still straight, still sharp. As for light and easy to use; its a cliche, but it felt like an extension of my arm, so perfect in fit & balance I hardly knew it was there.
So; I think Ive got a replacement for the 25" Kobra; but it's not the siruptai. The sirupati is a really fine sword, which (since Im not a martial arts type and have no dragons that need slaying) Ive cleaned, polished, buffed and put respectfully away. It's a thing of beauty, a magnificent piece of design; I cant think how it could be improved, as a sword. Ive only owned it a day and I havent really got any use for it, but I wouldnt want to be parted from it, ever. This ones a keeper. Just owning such a beautiful thing is justification enough.
But as a tool - well, theres absolutely nothing wrong with it, apart from a sense of a racehorse pulling a brewers dray. It just had the bad luck to be upstaged by an old-timer with real attitude whos not ready for retirement while theres still useful work to be done. Does that sound familiar..?
