I think youre way off base with the mysticism comment. No forumite here, nor yangdu,i feel are distancing themselves from comparison to any other comparable blade on the market. The problem is that some of you feel that comparing a handmade in the traditional manner blade against blades made with the help of modern tech and heat treating is a fair and unbiased test.
Nevermind the fact that this test that is underway is hardly scientific,moreso i feel that it is an excuse to destroy a perfectly fine handmade khuk and gain some notoriety while doing so.After all any of us can chop steel pipe or put our khuks in a vise and bash them to death with a sledgehammer.I never knew uncle bill, but i'm pretty sure he would have winced at this type of test, but, being the sort of person he was, he would have sent Noss4 a khuk to kill just to show that he wouldnt shy away from being called out on any matter concerning his product wether his khuk "won" the test or not. WE havent forgotten that these khuks we're so avid on purchasing are just tools, in fact we depend on that fact and most of us agree that in the khukuri world these H.I "tools" are some of the finest "tools" to be coming out of nepal today, bar none.
EDIT: just read Fearns post above which give even more reason to purchase an H.I. Khukuri over anything else on the market.
Good points Fearn and thank you.
I think the old joking talk about the blades being alive, or magic, has been used to personify it into a weird sort of mysticism. Like kung fu, the idea of old masters who never fight, but are esteemed on tradition and history. A safety of reputation from distance. Yes, that test is not scientific, I've said that myself in the very first sentence. But at the end of the day, it's a cold piece of steel. It's not a call out. It's just a guy who hammers on knives for entertainment, and though it'll be vague and highly variant, it'll say a little about what the knife can take. If you never even knew the man how can you say you're pretty sure you know what he'd do? I've been here for 6 years, and during this forums heyday, this was the main subforum I frequented. I bought and dealt with uncle bill for several years. Bill
advocated beating on the blades. He was well known for throwing the damn things around like you would a cheap throwing knife! Heck, on his chiruwa AK, he blatantly
dared people to try to bend or break yours, and if you managed to succeed he'd send you
two! Forumites trying to look out for old bill often advised him against it, because his outright confidence and incredible warranties left HI open to exploitation. He had the best warrantees in the business bar none. Who knows, maybe he was a wiser businessman than we all thought.. his seemingly outrageous service and backing might've drawn enough attention and customers to more than offset the costs of any occasional exploitation? Back then, this was by far the most popular and active manufacturers forum, with busse a distant second. One thing is for sure, he was never hesitant to beat on a blade, or to let anyone do so! They were handcrafted, forumites called them works of art, but he treated them as cold tools. When it came time to bring it and take artistry back to plain utility, there was never any hesitation on his part! They definately
weren't his special precious babies and definately weren't treated that way. If you think so, you definately did not know the man.
I also like what Shaman said
This is what happens though and why some people don't like the test. They have a belief about an item and all the emotions behind it lead them to dislike seeing a quality product abused and fail. And invariably they do fail since this is a Destruction Test.
I like using this example, CS vs HI, since they would rarely be cross shopped by the same crowd. But, Noss also did a test of a CTD Rough Use knife that did exceedingly well. So I guess people 'could' compare that against some of the combat crowd as well.
The "combat ready" knife comparisons though where the prices are similar and the design and intent are close could help people compare products they are actually cross shopping. Then for some of us who can not afford multi-hundred dollar blades, it is edu-tainment.
I think putting those personal emotions behind a product and a name leads to bias, and the built up veil of mysticism I talked about. Well, I know it does. At the end of that day, it's just a knife we're interested in that can be put through something interesting and somewhat revealing, despite the lack of scientific controlled procedure. It is edu-tainment.