New pattern for 14" Mutiny khukuri!

[Kailash Blades]

Our 15.5" mutiny is one of our most popular knives and has been instrumental in us earning the reputation that we have.
With this said though, the 14" version has developed a bit of a following in bushcraft circles. In these certain applications trading off the higher end of the chopping power for something that's lighter, more compact and a touch more precise and controllable in smaller chops has allowed for it to cement itself as a great one tool option.

With all this said the pattern we've been using until now has been one that's been freestyled by the blacksmiths and while it's done the trick we thought it deserved a little more love. This new pattern is a fair bit more refined, really emulating the proportions that gives it the performance known for and bringing across more of that unique styling.

A slender, gentle curve allows for a lot of speed and agility for brush clearing. However compared to a sirupate though the broader belly gives a bit more heft to keep it a competitive chopper.

This particular blade has steel hardware, a horn handle and a polished finish. This is one of the cheapest and classiest looks for a traditional khukuri IMO. Horn has earned a bit of a reputation as a poor user and something best kept on display blades due to it's slipperiness and uninviting feel. On the contrary,I'd say this is an issue with any highly polished material, it's just that horn is sually highly polished to bring out it's beautiful lustre and it isn't often experienced in a more raw form. When given a sanded, satin or raw finish the material feels warm and smooth with a soft traction to it.

The fuller cuts out weight while keeping a thicker rigid spine. The main grind is actually hollow in the upper portion for a deep bite, then convex at the edge for durability. This is a key part of why the mutiny and pensioner are both such high performing khukuris- a very steep, semi hollow main grind.

SPECS:
14" blade
6mm spine at bolster
430g
Prices starting from 143 usd.

Thanks for taking the time to read!
So for those of you that use khukuris in outdoors situations- how big is too big?
Or with khukuris are you only limited by your ambitions?
Take care,
Andrew and the team at Kailash.

 

[wildmike]

I guess I'll give ya my two cents worth.
I have worked with khukuri's for a good bit outdoors. The smallest blade length I would use is a 12". I have a dui chirra with a 13.5" blade and another with a 1 4" blafe, pkus two m43's with 13" blades.
I honestly think the sweet spot is 13" -14" blade length.
now that is taking into consideration being able to use the knife for the greatest variety of uses, plus having it as easy to carry as possible.

 

[wildmike]

If tracking holds true, I'll have one of these with a 13" blade tomorrow.

 

[Kailash Blades]

I guess I'll give ya my two cents worth.
I have worked with khukuri's for a good bit outdoors. The smallest blade length I would use is a 12". I have a dui chirra with a 13.5" blade and another with a 1 4" blafe, pkus two m43's with 13" blades.
I honestly think the sweet spot is 13" -14" blade length.
now that is taking into consideration being able to use the knife for the greatest variety of uses, plus having it as easy to carry as possible.

If tracking holds true, I'll have one of these with a 13" blade tomorrow.

For my kind of utility that's focused on chopping and brush clearing rather than carving and finer work 13" is the sweet spot too. I would go down to a 10" blade if I was in a very weight conscious hiking or survival situation though. We also have a few customers who love khukuris but won't go over 12". I think it's great that these blades see use by people with such varied philosophies of use.
Hope your blade arrives soon! It would be great if you could put up a post with your thoughts and feelings on the blade.
Take care,
Andrew and the team at Kailash.

 

[wildmike]

The blade arrived on time, and have'nt been able to put it down since!
Tim's site lists the blade at 13" , but mine is 14" , perfect!
The sheath is the best fitting, and looking sheath I hae ever had on any khukuri I have ever seen, period. The blade as well as karda and chakma can not be shaken out even upside down, fantastic job!
The handle is the best fitting and feeling in hand as well.
The blade is the same size as another khukuri I own, but that one lacks the distal taper of this blade, which makes it guite a bit heavier.
This blades weight is much better, and its balance in hand is superb.
This one appears to be your standard edge which suit my needs very well.
I am very very pleased.
The karda and chakma are fully functional and very well done.
Everyone should get one of these blades.
I'll be hitting the hills in a few days, and it is coming along.

 

[Kailash Blades]

The blade arrived on time, and have'nt been able to put it down since!
Tim's site lists the blade at 13" , but mine is 14" , perfect!
The sheath is the best fitting, and looking sheath I hae ever had on any khukuri I have ever seen, period. The blade as well as karda and chakma can not be shaken out even upside down, fantastic job!
The handle is the best fitting and feeling in hand as well.
The blade is the same size as another khukuri I own, but that one lacks the distal taper of this blade, which makes it guite a bit heavier.
This blades weight is much better, and its balance in hand is superb.
This one appears to be your standard edge which suit my needs very well.
I am very very pleased.
The karda and chakma are fully functional and very well done.
Everyone should get one of these blades.
I'll be hitting the hills in a few days, and it is coming along.

Great to hear you're happy with your blade!

 

[HJA]

Gonna bump this thread because I was looking at their website (Keeping up with the Kailashians?) and saw the Mutiny has been updated with some different specs:

OLD

12″: 6.5mm spine at bolster, 380g
14″: (Historical Length) 6mm spine at bolster, 420g
15.5″: 6mm spine at bolster, 480g

NEW:

12″: 8mm spine at bolster, 405g
14″: 8mm spine at bolster, 445g
15.5″ (historical length): 8mm spine at bolster, 530g

Would be curious to hear the reasons for the change & to know if there were any other stealth updates to check out Was this perhaps influenced by the thicker edged Interwar DML had you guys replicate?

 

[Kailash Blades]

Very keen eye!
We actually make running changes like this more or less constantly as we learn more about khukuris, receive customer feedback and develop greater production skills. The great thing about having blades that are made by hand is that there's no overheads or changes in tooling involved with a shift in specs- just communication and a momentary drop in efficiency. With this said though these mutiny changes are the start of a whole big chunk that will be rolled out to a lot of our traditional blades. Some will just be updated workshop specs and some will be announced via social media- in general if a new photo is hitting the website then there'll be announcements

These changes have been influenced by a few factors:

-on the recent nepal trip I had 3 months of handling, testing and analysis with just about every blade we offer as well as more antique examples. Having the ability to do a lot of side by side testing and look at our lineup as a whole has highlighted a lot of opportunities to get blades more dialed in for their intended function/feel within either their specific historical context or the context of the whole lineup.

-a new QC system that gives me a lot more feedback about what kind of weights the guys are actually hitting and whether weights are being landed with too much ease for that pattern or there's strain in getting them ground down. An example would be our chitlange blades- it's become apparent that these are actually overspecced on the website for weight. This new information gives us the opportunity to reduce weight further, or alter the design to add weight in order to enhance handling/ durability characteristics.

-soon we're going to be rolling out some redesigns of previous traditional blades as well as introduce some wholly fresh ones. With this certain blades are being optimised towards slightly different tasks and as a result some specs are shifting to reduce product overlap and provide a more varied lineup.

With the mutiny in particular the new blades have a touch more weight that's been added in the first few inches of the spine. In terms of feel it gives a bit more authority in hand (particularly with the smaller lengths) and ups chopping power without hurting speed. It feels better all round. From the historical side it's also more in line with the thicknesses and weights of the originals from this period. Finally it has the positive effect of creating more differentiation between the 14" mutiny and 14" chitlange in terms of feel and intended use. We may end up doing a "new for 2022" update to the description, but these will be done with all the other blades in one big computer session once things are finalised and rolled out with the team.

The interwar is a very interesting blade for sure! Currently it hasn't influenced any spec changes but in my eyes it's provided a valuable insight into the presence and development of reverse distal taper on some khukuris and helpe as a means to pack more power into a smaller blade length. It's also helped crystalise my thoughts in the ways in which different khukuris use fullering for different purposes (bhojpure style fullering near bolster to push weight forward vs angkhola style fullering at belly to push weight back). Finally it's helped me understand why reverse distal taper is common on on a lot of smaller, cheaper khukuris that have been produced in the last 50 years and potentially why that's earned them a reputation for snapping and was potentially compensated for with even larger spine thicknesses.

Take care,
Andrew and the team at kailash

 

[d762nato]

It looks to be a light weight compared to most these days. It's probably pretty fast in hand, also I like that kaudi and the horn handle. Congrats nice Khukuri.

 

[Kailash Blades]

It looks to be a light weight compared to most these days. It's probably pretty fast in hand, also I like that kaudi and the horn handle. Congrats nice Khukuri.

Yep still definitely a lgiht blade, just adding a bit of weight back into it to get it feeling right

 

[bigeard09]

Very keen eye!
We actually make running changes like this more or less constantly as we learn more about khukuris, receive customer feedback and develop greater production skills. The great thing about having blades that are made by hand is that there's no overheads or changes in tooling involved with a shift in specs- just communication and a momentary drop in efficiency. With this said though these mutiny changes are the start of a whole big chunk that will be rolled out to a lot of our traditional blades. Some will just be updated workshop specs and some will be announced via social media- in general if a new photo is hitting the website then there'll be announcements

These changes have been influenced by a few factors:

-on the recent nepal trip I had 3 months of handling, testing and analysis with just about every blade we offer as well as more antique examples. Having the ability to do a lot of side by side testing and look at our lineup as a whole has highlighted a lot of opportunities to get blades more dialed in for their intended function/feel within either their specific historical context or the context of the whole lineup.

-a new QC system that gives me a lot more feedback about what kind of weights the guys are actually hitting and whether weights are being landed with too much ease for that pattern or there's strain in getting them ground down. An example would be our chitlange blades- it's become apparent that these are actually overspecced on the website for weight. This new information gives us the opportunity to reduce weight further, or alter the design to add weight in order to enhance handling/ durability characteristics.

-soon we're going to be rolling out some redesigns of previous traditional blades as well as introduce some wholly fresh ones. With this certain blades are being optimised towards slightly different tasks and as a result some specs are shifting to reduce product overlap and provide a more varied lineup.

With the mutiny in particular the new blades have a touch more weight that's been added in the first few inches of the spine. In terms of feel it gives a bit more authority in hand (particularly with the smaller lengths) and ups chopping power without hurting speed. It feels better all round. From the historical side it's also more in line with the thicknesses and weights of the originals from this period. Finally it has the positive effect of creating more differentiation between the 14" mutiny and 14" chitlange in terms of feel and intended use. We may end up doing a "new for 2022" update to the description, but these will be done with all the other blades in one big computer session once things are finalised and rolled out with the team.

The interwar is a very interesting blade for sure! Currently it hasn't influenced any spec changes but in my eyes it's provided a valuable insight into the presence and development of reverse distal taper on some khukuris and helpe as a means to pack more power into a smaller blade length. It's also helped crystalise my thoughts in the ways in which different khukuris use fullering for different purposes (bhojpure style fullering near bolster to push weight forward vs angkhola style fullering at belly to push weight back). Finally it's helped me understand why reverse distal taper is common on on a lot of smaller, cheaper khukuris that have been produced in the last 50 years and potentially why that's earned them a reputation for snapping and was potentially compensated for with even larger spine thicknesses.

Take care,
Andrew and the team at kailash

Im glad someone has finally understood the ergonomics of the different kukuri styles in regards to weight and balance verses actual use . Thanks