BAS by Ramkumar is here

Joined
Jun 15, 2017
Messages
485
British Army Service (BAS)
OAL: 15 1/5 in
Handle: 5 in incl. bolster
Blade: 10 1/5 in
Weight: 20.2 oz
Thickness, bolster: 3/8 in
Karda: ok
Chakmak: ok
Sheath: Perfect. Double loops. Fits blade great.
Kami: Ramkumar
Kami mark: leaf, 3 Devnagari characters
Scrollwork: Usual HI symmetry on both sides, plus two 5-pointed stars each at the mid-blade
Cho: superb, symmetrical, as good as my Purnas and Kumars
Edge: sharp, cuts paper straight off
Tip: Could be pointier, but scary enough
Build quality: Much more solid than expected…survived a drop from bed to tile with zero damage
Blem marks: 1/2 in ding at handle base but seems already repaired, thanks Ramkumar!; minor tiny scratches on blade handle only visible under a lamp; whitish natural grain mark on handle spine
Performance: Reduced a 2-foot 2" thick branch to 4 neat pieces in 60 secs (to be updated)
Rate: 9/10 (tip not pointy enough, imho)
Comment: If there ever was any doubt I would rate Ramkumar on par with any other. I was hard pressed to find fault.

Grateful acknowledgements: A huge thank you to Auntie Yangdu for keeping this one for me, you're the best. Ramkumar, much gratitude, thanks for all your hard work. Thanks to Cul for sharing his 17 oz BAS on an earlier thread and turning me on to this one, I get why you rated it as the first choice when it came to a fighter!; Mr George Azar for showing me how handy it could be for yard work; Bookie for predicting it would be my new friend, jdk1 and stwm for reassurance. This one replaces my 16.5" CAK for camping trips in a heartbeat.

A crappy cell phone photo:
http://i346.photobucket.com/albums/p407/amko1967/IMG_20181025_123709_zpsbwi0ahnk.jpg

Tip: could be pointier? You decide:
http://i346.photobucket.com/albums/p407/amko1967/Mobile Uploads/IMG_20181025_140002_zpsiopmim3d.jpg

In sum, if you're on the edge for a trusty hiking/camping companion, this might be it.
 
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Great pix and review, thank you for sharing
 
Guess I'd best watch for a BAS, one of the missing ones on the knife rack.
 
I love mine, and auntie picked it out personally. It was my 2nd knife if I remember right, the first was my 15" silver mounted AK with the engraved dragon.
 
the BAS seems to be a knife that gets passed over a lot. I think a lot of folks pick one up as a first or second khuk, but if you don't grab one around that point of your collection, it tends to get skipped. I know I have never had one.

Sounds like I need to keep an eye out for a BAS.:D
 
Great kukri. The BAS is one of my favorites. I wouldn't worry about the tip. Kukris aren't stabbing blades, but if you want a pointier tip, the one you have would be easy to alter. It wouldn't take much time on a stone to achieve it.
 
On the tip being not so pointy. Not having a BAS, but being a big fan of the WWII, the two always struck me as siblings. The WWII has more of a pug nose than the BAS, but both seem more blunt than some models. I really appreciate that in the WWII as it does two things: it moves the belly and weight as far from the handle as possible, which improves chopping leverage for shorter OAL khuks and also gives also offers a very stout tip unlikely to be affected by hard impacts. Again, this is from a WWII user, so YMMV.
 
The 15" is truly a "golden" size, as stwm put it. Perfect utility for light camping and the odd yard work. When it comes to this one, less is more. No compromise on chopping power either, sometimes small is beautiful.
 
My 20 ounce BAS by Ram Kumar could have a sharper edge. So I bought a leather strop, 10 x 3 inches, from Itaro. It will come with a compound. Hopefully it will give the knife a sharper edge. I'll keep you posted!
 
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