Khukuri vs jambiya

J

Johan van Zyl

Joined
Oct 11, 2000
Messages
372
It's true I am a khukuri fan with about ten khuks to my name, but my latest acquisition was a (wait for it) jambiya! So why a jambiya? Well, it makes sense, doesn't it? When I show my khuks to my friends, I tell them the khuk is the traditional knife of the Gurkhas. So, in contrast/similarity (?) with the khuk there are other knives also known as traditional in their own country. The jambiya is one of those. Many countries from Morocco eastwards to Bali claim the jambiya as their traditional knife. The one I managed to acquire is a Kurdish jambiya of about 1910 vintage. So I think you actually highlight the status or position of the khukuri by comparing it with eg. the jambiya.

How does that grab you, guys? Stay well.

(Joke: There was this father who complained about his little son's messy table manners. He said to his son, "You eat like a little pig, you know! Do you know what a little pig is?" The son replied: "Yes, Daddy. It's the little boy of a big pig!"
 
Makes perfect sense to me. Only I'm going after a good keris first and then a jambiya. ( And anything else I can grab inbetween. )

That reminds me that one of my uncles worked the for a company, oil I seem to recall, down in Venezuela sometime in the late 20's or early thirties. My dad had his pistol ( Luger ) and a machete with light green/grey waterbuffalo horn handles. Wonder whatever happened to them?
 
Johan,

I remember the hoops you went through to get herneuter (Spelling?:confused: ) pics posted. Can you provide any existing links to jambiya pics?

The included joke/parable is an excellent one. If I'd been drinking fluids at the time I read it, the fluid would have come out my nose. Since I was eating instead, the results were less tidy and more uncomfortable :) I have to try to remember that one for sure.
 
Ethnic knives are good to have, I plan on at least trying to get the big ones.
 
What is so infuriating/frustrating about knife collecting, is that there are so many ways of going about it. But first of all there is the absolutelely limiting financial considerations. I have decided to actually copncentrate on khukuris, with another tradional knife thrown in, but I could just as soon have acquired a jambiya collection next to my khukuris. There are just as many wonderful varieties within jambiyas as there as in khukuris. For instance, there are jambiyas with curved sheaths, the sheath point actually turning around on itself; the function of this is to hook around the sash, in this way allowing the wearer to draw his jambiya. My original Kurdish jambiya does not have this kind of sheath at all. There seems to be two kinds of jambiya, the Arab type and the Kurdish type. The Arab type has the exceptionally curved aheath and a very wide blade. The Kurdish/Balkan type has a narrower blade and straighter sheath. Both have the pronounced rib in the centre of the blade; however I have seen jambiyas without this rib.

I saw an advertisement on internet of a TOURIST quality Arab jambiya at a price of 300 dollars! And they admit it's mid-20th century tourist: unsharpened blade, blade of ornamental quality only. I have handled the tourist jambiya belonging to a colleague, which his girl friend brought from Rijadh. This is a dead ringer to the picture in the advertisement. Ugh!!! They made the blade from two pieces of tinplate, hammered in the rib on each, then soldered the two halves together. That's why you can't really sharpen it.
 
Thanks, Johan,

I now know perzactly what you mean!!!

I think when I've seen such things before, a different name/names was used. Very pretty.

I've a particular liking for knives evolved for work, myself. But in the designed as weapon catagory, fine jambiyas (by this or any other name) can stand up to keris as wonderful works of art.

Interesting site too.

This looks like something that HI has made:

http://www.antiqueswords.com/mw27.htm
 
I have what looks to be an old Nepalese Jambiya; it was discussed in an old thread but sadly the pix were lost when the Photopoint ship sank: A Nepali Janbiyya (Jambiya)?http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=147600

Also, two weeks ago I finally received an Indian jambiya I'd been paying off for about 1-1/2 years : :eek:

fullwootz1.jpg

fullwootz3.jpg

fullwootz6.jpg


The Indian one looks nicer, but the Nepali one is a much better fighting weapon.
 
Posted for JP, who says of this knife "a very unique and very Nepalese piece. Have been looking for this blade style after seeing it in old catalogs and other research."
 

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Holy cow. ... I saw the title of this thread and initially thought it was a report of using a Khuk for cagin cooking. ... I really have to slow down when reading :) .

That is some knife! Ruel, I wish we still had access to the Nepali version pics. ... it would be interesting to see the difference between the two.

Thanks for the pics


Alan
 
Ruel, what a knife! Could you possibly let me (us) have some more information on the knife in your pics? You say it's an Indian jambiya?

Hi Berk! When I looked at the knife in your pics, I got the impression it's a miniature, like about 4 inches long.... Am I crazy?

(Ancient parable:
"Big fleas have little fleas
upon their backs to bite'um
and little fleas have lesser fleas
and so ad infinitum")
 
Johan,
JP says "It does give the impression of being small, but it is 12" overall."
Berek
 
Hi guys,

Alan:

Hopefully I have the Nepali jambiya pix still saved on an old disc. Let me look over the weekend for 'em. ;) It looks pretty much the same as an Arabian-style jambiya -- wide, flat blade with a prominent central rib. What gives it away as Nepali is the scabbard (looks exactly like a khukuri scabbard) and the dot-engraving on the blade surface.

Johan:

I'll describe it as best I can. It's about 15in. overall, with a 10in. blade. It's probably early 1700's, northern India (late Mughal/early Maratha period), and follows the Persian style.

The blade is wootz damascus with a slight ladder pattern:
fullwootz7.jpg


As you can see, the fullers are so wide that they don't leave much room for an edge bevel; consequently the edges aren't too sharp. The tip, though, is thickened, so apparently this blade style was made for hooking stabs.

The hilt is elephant ivory, and is set with a brilliant mosaic of white, black, & green ivory triangles.

fullwootz5.jpg


Looking closely at it, I'm guessing that metal frames were used to set the pieces, then inserted into hollowed out panels on the sides of the hilt.

Unfortunately, there's a big hole in the mosaic on one side:
fullwootz2.jpg


I'm thinking what I should do about this, short of trying to file down hundreds more of those little triangles and fitting them in. Any suggestions? :confused:
 
Ruel, can't help with alternates for the mosaic repair, but producing all those "micro-tiles" should keep you out of trouble for a while!

"Khanjar" was the name for similar knives that I couldn't remember:

http://www.antiqueswords.com/jb3.htm

A khanjar is a less-curved jambiya?

Saw a news piece on Yemen last night. Every male was wearing BIG jambiyas/khanjars. (And toting an automatic rifle.)
 
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