How did you first hear about the HI forum?

Opened the manufacturers' forums and noticed this one had more posts than Busse...where I hang out sometimes.

Anyway, reasoned that there MUST be something going on here...however, gotta admit I have no idea what a khukuri is. I am going to do a search on Google when I am finished posting this and educate myself...then I will be back. :)
 
I read about Kukris from cold steel catalog. Then a friend of mine bought one from HI. At first, I didn't trust steel made in a third world country, I didn't know about the quality of the steel and the tempering methods. My friend introduced me to the forum and some Kukri reviews, and the HI website. After reading through the literature, and browsing the web site, I was pretty hooked. Partially by the kukris, and also by why Uncle Bill started this business. After I bought my first Kukri and tried it out, and I was hooked since. I took many shop classes in school, so I really appreciate how much work goes into one of things.

The 5160 the blades were made of is an excellent steel. I guess most of you figured that out already. My cousin bought a katana for $80, and it looks and feel like a ground iron bar. I actually bent that thing with my bare hands. My $75 BAS is so much better :) I think he'll be buying a HI Kukri soon, I'm making him drool.
 
I followed a link from another site (Therion's Arms & Armor Resources) while surfing around looking for an outfit that could make me a copy of a Greek machaera at an affordable price; saw the HI website and the amazing pics of the village kami at work. Those pics had two lasting effects; first, I knew I had to own something made by those guys; second, they tipped me over the edge into realizing an ambition I'd had ever since I was a little kid - I took up blacksmithing.

Now I'm sitting here in my broom-closet-sized study, with a row of HI khuks stacked up against one wall, and a steadily growing pile of my own home-made junk stacked against the other three, and just enough space in between to get to the desk without cutting myself to the bone on a projecting blade... I'm glad I found this place!
 
I have always been here. Where were you guys?

Purchased my first khukuri around 1985, and my first HI khukuri in 1995.

n2s
 
I had from time to time thought about getting a khukuri, probably one of the Cold Steel models, just because they looked so neat. Then I saw a "real" one (probably a piece of tourist crap) at a knife show and the CS models didn't seem so attractive. I read a review in one of the knife mags, and that piqued my interest too.

But it wasn't until I came to Bladeforums, probably from the Benchmade site, or maybe because James Mattis was a moderator here and I had a lot of respect for him from the days when I was a regular on rec.knives and recdotknives.com. Anyway, I decided to check out Bladeforums and noticed HI on the makers and manufacturer's page. I especially noticed the high number of postings and decided to look at what all the traffic was about. Been here ever since. I occasionally look at other Bladeforum sites, but not many and not regularly.

I bought my first khuk a few months later, a BAS model at Uncle Bill's gentle suggestion. I have four khuks at the moment, having just traded away my 20-in. sirupati to Pendentive, and the chitlangi is my hands-down favorite. For now, anyway.
 
I attended the Baltimore Arms Show in March. Saturday night Lee Jones with Ethnographic Weapons / vikingsword hosted a dinner in Timmonium.

There were several speakers on how to spot fakes, Phil Tom, Scott Rodell (already old friends of mine) and a fascinating bald guy with a huge walrus moustache and an incredible Khuk.

This was my introduction to John Powell, khukmeister extraordinaire!

He suggested I look at the FAQs, and here I am. Happy and Khuking along.

Bill Marsh
 
I first became interested in "kukris" after seeing them in Atlanta Cutlery's catalogs. Then about a year ago I started frequenting Bladeforums and "heard" about HI. I visited the Cantina and was totally baffled by the lingo. Then last February I read The HI FAQs in order to decide what my "one" knife for 2002 was going to be. Now after five HI khukuris :eek: since then I'm still looking for that one (after 7:30 PM) PGA that no one grabbed.
 
For me it started with my purchasing a very cheap Indian knock-off khuk. I wondered what a quality one would be like and began searching the internet.

An AltaVista search led me to the HI shopping site, as well as GH, Khukuri House and many other places, including Cliff Stamp's torture test reviews. I spent about two weeks contemplating it all.

It was a combination of Howard's FAQ page, the HI guarantee and Cliff's reviews finally sold me. I took the plunge and bought a 16.5" Chiruwa from the shopping site. The day it arrived I picked my jaw up off the floor, pushed my eyeballs back into my head and immediately ordered an 18" GS.

The next day I was on the shopping site, drooling over the pictures, when I clicked the BladeForum link out of curiosity and landed in the Cantina. And the rest, as they say, is history. Including my savings account).:rolleyes:

BTW Bruise, I concur with Bobwhite, your posts consistently crack me up also.

(edited for grammar)
 
I knew about khukuris from my Dad, who encountered the Gorkhas in N. Africa during WWII. A web search on Google brought me to the Himalayan Imports website and the rest followed :)

Nice bunch of folks here, and Tio Bill is an honorable man to deal with. <br>
 
Saw a tourist khuk in an import shop on Maui that had an engraved blade. Very heavy maybe 20" long. Was going to buy it but it was sold before I could and they didn't know if they'd get any more. I think it was a wallhanger anyway...

Searhed for "ghurkha knives" as I had a friend from elementary school who lived in Brunei for a time and was escorted through the jungle by Gorkhas. He used to tell me stories of the Huge curved knives that could decapitate a man and chop down huge trees. Kinda always thought he was lying back then...how was I supposed to know it was the truth:D

Liked the forum and those on it (many of whom are no longer here unfortunately, but many good guys have arrived since:)) and have been here ever since. That was in Dec of 1999 IIRC, but I'm not sure. I tried to get Spark to change my registration date to reflect this but after posting 4or5 times in the service forum and getting nowhere I gave up.

now I have 10 and counting---next up is the Cherokee Rose!!! Can't wait for that bad boy:D
 
I was surffing in net trying to find info about kukris (that was the word I used when I did that search - if my memory serves well). I think that found link at equipped.com. (It might have gone first to Cliffs review page and from there to HI forum)
That was my way to HI forum and BF. I lurked for a while here, in spyderco and in general forum and made my first posting at general. I still haven't got any khukuris (mainly because I live in Europe) but hopely later this year I'll get my fist (I don't even pretend that it will be the last as I can't now make my mind between Ang Khola, BAS and WW II)
 
My interest in khukuris started as a 10 year old boy in Delhi, when an old Gorkha watchman in our neighborhood showed me his. He watch the house next to ours when it was being built and also watched the neighborhood. I was always curious about the huge recurved knife he carried on his belt so he finally showed it to me after a number of questions to that effect.

Since then I knew that when I was grown I would have to get a khukuri of my own. Unfortunately, most of the ones I saw in India were the tourist junk model khukuris and since then, I had given up finding a good quality khukuri that I could pass on to any kids that I would have after marriage. One day, at work, having a lot of time on my hands, I did a browse on Yahoo of khukuris and found the Ethnographic Blade site and found a link for Himalayan Imports web site. I looked into the site and read all of Cliff's reviews on HI khuks. Finally I emailed Uncle and at his recommendation, I bought a 16.5 inch World War II khukuri. When it arrived, I was blown away by the quality of the khukuri. Added to that, Uncle Bill's way of treating customers as family and friend rather than as just another customer to make a sale off of. By the end of two months, I had a already made a small collection that included a BAS, 21 inch GS, 15 inch Ang Khola and 12 inch Ang Khola. Later on, I added a Ganga Ram, BGRS, Kesar made M43 and a Bura made 18 inch Sirupati. When I look at all those PGA's come by, I always end up wanting another khuk, but as they say, too many toys, but not enough money. Some day soon enough, I'll have to go for a YCS or a Chitlangi, and a Cherokee Rose.

Arvind
 
I just wandered into this area of Bladeforums. First thing I noticed after reading a few posts was that this area was nothing like the others. I looked up mre posts and did some reading of old posts. My only experience with khuks at that point were of the Cold Steel kind, and to me those used to be thick blades. Then I ordered a Sirupati, my first and favorite, and then I realized why alot of guys thought that the Cold Steel ones were mediocre compared to these knives. Great stuff, ever since then, I've been checking this forum whever I have some spare time.:)
 
Many years ago I answered an ad in a magazine and uncle Bill sent me a packet of information on Khukuris from Himalayan Imports. I remembered the name and one night I typed it into Alta Vista on a kick and found the forum.
 
I read an article in SOF about the cold steel khuks and I wanted a knife that could split a man from forehead to sturnum in a single blow. I was set to get a CS when a friend said that I should look for a traditional khukri. I thought it couldn't hurt.. so I punched it up on altavista and found Himalayan Imports. I surfed the shopping site for a while before picking out an 18 inch WWII. I'd never seen a knife like that before. You all know the feeling. Its 5 monthes later and I've got a 15 inch AK and an 18 inch GS on the way. I put another 15" AK into the hands of the above mentioned friend, and I got a nice villager to a friend of the family. I've never done the bulletin board thing before, but then again, this forum is different than any other.
 
Back around the time the Cold Steel khuk first came out, and was reviewed in Blade or Fighting Knives , I responded to an HI ad in the magazine. I think this was back when HI just had village models, before the first shop. I got a 3x5 picture in the mail with two pretty little khuks on it. Ten years or so in the future, I was surfing the net, found the HI website, khuk FAQ and the Cantina, and finally forked over some cash. Good investment.
 
I never heard of a khukuri until Bill told me he was going to sell them. I didn't think there would be much of a market.

Several years later he showed an ad in a knife magazine and the info package that he sent out. I was wrong. There was a market.

A couple more years past and I remember asking Bill if he was going to get a computer. He said something like, "I don't need a damned computer, I already have a typewriter."

A couple more years pass and there's Bill reading a catalog saying, "I think I'll get this one. I don't know anything about it, but it's made by IBM and I know they make pretty good stuff."

I tell him it's probably a good machine but I don't know anything about Windows and personally prefer Macs. Actually, I hate ALL Windows machines, but I decide not to get too heavy about it because at least Bill was coming into the computer age.

A couple months later Bill calls and gives me his email, web page address, and tells me about the forum.

Somewhere in this chain of events, Bill gave me a khukuri. It is one of my most treasured possessions. I'm not a collector, and I don't need more than one khukuri, but the forum and Bill's web site have provided me with an immense amount of knowledge and info about my khukuri which makes it even more precious to me.
 
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