shortwinger
Gold Member
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2010
- Messages
- 1,082
The Cold Steel Gurkha Kukri is one of my favorites. As a disclaimer, I love all kinds of kukri and have a lot of different models from different makers. Cold Steel really got this one right and to be honest, it has no competition to compare it to from the modern made kukri market. By modern made I mean not the traditional hand crafted kukri from Nepal. So with no competition it always seems to end up in head to head comparisons with the traditional kukri models, something I don't like but it seems inevitable.
What I like: This one is easy, I like just about everything. Overall the design is similar in shape and weight to the MkII kukri that was in service from about 1917-1944, my personal favorite. It has a very good weight and balance which is extremely important in these large blades. The handle is comfortable and the stock sheath has no close competition. The steel is fantastic, I use it as a farm/camp/recreation tool and have run it through the ringer with constant use for over two years and it has never come up short. I have chopped live trees, seasoned firewood (hard wood), downed frozen trees as well as using it as a hammer fixing fences and smashing whatever gets in the way.
What I dont like: Nothing...
Suggestions: This may sound like a funny complaint but, as a machine made blade it is almost too perfect. The traditional kukri is made by hand using hammers and this produces marks or indentations in the finished product. These hammer marks make air pockets in the steel as it moves through wood and allow the blade to dig deep and not stick in the wood. Similarly the traditional craftsman also do something called a hollow forge where the blade has a slight concave area designed to reduce friction and weight in the chopping models. Luckily this sticking is not something that happens often and I have found that some WD-40 or other lubricant fixes this as well as chopping with a bit less force and/or adjusting your angle. I am not sure if this is something that can be addressed in a machine made blade but it is something you hear comments about from people that really do use their kukri.
Another area where the traditional kukri has an advantage is that they make different models to do different jobs. Fighting models are long light and fast, chopping models have a weight shift to the belly and use the correct edge and bevel to deal with wood and then some models are in the middle so they can do it all. The Gurkha Kukri [like the MkII] is considered a jack of all trades model that can handle just about anything and it performs very well in that role.
This leads to a tie in to the ATC thread. You could certainly use the paragraph above to make the argument to bring back models such as the ATC or the Gurkha Kukri Light. After trying to find the perfect smaller kukri for the last 3 or 4 years I have found most of them lacking. The thing to understand is that a kukri is not just a knife with a curved blade, it has to work and act and have the feel of a kukri to be effective. When you bring the size below an 11 inch blade in many cases you just end up with a big awkward curved knife. There are certainly exceptions to that rule and several companies offer some nice smaller models, most notably HI and two traditional Nepalese models called the Nepal Army and Nepal Police. My favorite smaller kukri is an older WWI/WWII model called the Pilot/Aircrew MkII which I would love for Cold Steel (or anyone else) to reproduce! It is essentially a small MkII and I would be willing to bet that anyone that could "accurately" reproduce this model would see a modern day gold rush! I'm not in the market for another kukri but I would buy one for sure...
In the end Cold Steel could just keep the Gurkha Kukri exactly the way it is for the next 20 years and still have the best modern kukri on the market. For hard long-term sustained use the Gurkha Kukri is like Secretariat in the Belmont Stakes, nothing even close!
What I like: This one is easy, I like just about everything. Overall the design is similar in shape and weight to the MkII kukri that was in service from about 1917-1944, my personal favorite. It has a very good weight and balance which is extremely important in these large blades. The handle is comfortable and the stock sheath has no close competition. The steel is fantastic, I use it as a farm/camp/recreation tool and have run it through the ringer with constant use for over two years and it has never come up short. I have chopped live trees, seasoned firewood (hard wood), downed frozen trees as well as using it as a hammer fixing fences and smashing whatever gets in the way.
What I dont like: Nothing...
Suggestions: This may sound like a funny complaint but, as a machine made blade it is almost too perfect. The traditional kukri is made by hand using hammers and this produces marks or indentations in the finished product. These hammer marks make air pockets in the steel as it moves through wood and allow the blade to dig deep and not stick in the wood. Similarly the traditional craftsman also do something called a hollow forge where the blade has a slight concave area designed to reduce friction and weight in the chopping models. Luckily this sticking is not something that happens often and I have found that some WD-40 or other lubricant fixes this as well as chopping with a bit less force and/or adjusting your angle. I am not sure if this is something that can be addressed in a machine made blade but it is something you hear comments about from people that really do use their kukri.
Another area where the traditional kukri has an advantage is that they make different models to do different jobs. Fighting models are long light and fast, chopping models have a weight shift to the belly and use the correct edge and bevel to deal with wood and then some models are in the middle so they can do it all. The Gurkha Kukri [like the MkII] is considered a jack of all trades model that can handle just about anything and it performs very well in that role.
This leads to a tie in to the ATC thread. You could certainly use the paragraph above to make the argument to bring back models such as the ATC or the Gurkha Kukri Light. After trying to find the perfect smaller kukri for the last 3 or 4 years I have found most of them lacking. The thing to understand is that a kukri is not just a knife with a curved blade, it has to work and act and have the feel of a kukri to be effective. When you bring the size below an 11 inch blade in many cases you just end up with a big awkward curved knife. There are certainly exceptions to that rule and several companies offer some nice smaller models, most notably HI and two traditional Nepalese models called the Nepal Army and Nepal Police. My favorite smaller kukri is an older WWI/WWII model called the Pilot/Aircrew MkII which I would love for Cold Steel (or anyone else) to reproduce! It is essentially a small MkII and I would be willing to bet that anyone that could "accurately" reproduce this model would see a modern day gold rush! I'm not in the market for another kukri but I would buy one for sure...
In the end Cold Steel could just keep the Gurkha Kukri exactly the way it is for the next 20 years and still have the best modern kukri on the market. For hard long-term sustained use the Gurkha Kukri is like Secretariat in the Belmont Stakes, nothing even close!
) the year. I don't worry about temperature or humidity affecting anything, and I know it will handle any work I throw at it. I like khukuri, modern and traditional. My advice is to try everything and see what works and you may end up really liking both as well. 
