When was the last time your HI piece scared the soul outta ......?

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Mar 27, 2010
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I was looking out for UBE after HairahSitna's post on Rajkumar's .The upward curve on the tip reminded me of the "Chukri" or the Chettri knife for back slash (large, slim K-bit feel if you may call it)

Then i found this post about how lads used to write to Uncle Bill about their experiences in the sandbox :http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...er-from-Paul-revisited.?highlight=Afghanistan

Took me back to several weeks ago when i was doing my usual weekend-hikes; THIS WILL SOUND POMPOUS but hey the antagonist is the khuk, it ain't me:

Being out with my colleagues Gelbu Special was the least-menacing khuk i could squeeze in my pack. (Sparing those monday chats about a quiet colleague with a large knife is the best thing i could do before my boss gave me a weird look. Well I guess it didn't work...read on)

Along the trail there were plenty of chopping opportunities since it's been raining heavily and fallen trees overnight was normal. I had to resist the "un-sheath" ritual since most of my colleagues just climbed over it. Yes I was aching to if you will ask!

Soon the sight of a large bush, mostly branches from a fresh log resting was right on the menu. Then came a school of mountain bikers from opposite direction and the lead stopped as 2 groups pondered over the obstacle ; He told me to proceed walking from the side as he pulled out his gigantic folder. I was quietly pleased as someone had a taste for big knives. It turned out to be a serrated saw blade and went sawing off the branches.

My patience failed after 5 minutes and he hasn�t got any stick off. I guess I could help him faster and the Gelbu inside the pack was already making violent shakes. So minus all the �Thundercats� special effect it flew out and made short work of the branches.
I was busy chopping off and within minutes the trail was clear again.

A very uncomfortable silence built in once everything was done. I looked around and the rider group was shocked. They just stood still and looked at me. I didn�t know exactly why but I do know Gelbu was probably very happy he was well-fed.

It was made clear after that one of my colleagues came to me and said:

That's a BIG kookoo, dude.
:)
 
Don't know if 'scared' is the right word, but earlier this afternoon I had the chance to show my 22inch/45ounces Dui Chira to a non-Khuk knife owner: - his eye's opened wide, a broad grin appeared on his face and I said "knife folks don't know what big is until they see and hold the larger model HI Khuk's!" ;)
 
Ahhh, kukri stories. . .

Closest I came to scared was the old story about when I first got Ereshkigal, my 20" CAK, and took a massive swing at a small pine tree and she went through in one shot, and I danced around a bit trying not to fall and impale myself on the stump or my new kukri, until I just flung her away from me and fell in a safe direction. She just laughed at me.

I did scared a few people with her. The best one was an intentional scare. Some bozo accosted me out in the woods on a hike-to-camp, blabbering on, asking what I was doing there and waving around this Cheaper than Dirt "survival knife" that I suppose he thought was scary with its 7 inch or so blade and saw back. Until I turned so I wasn't bladed to him and he saw Ereshkigal in my hands. He got real polite.
 
I did scared a few people with her. The best one was an intentional scare. Some bozo accosted me out in the woods on a hike-to-camp, blabbering on, asking what I was doing there and waving around this Cheaper than Dirt "survival knife" that I suppose he thought was scary with its 7 inch or so blade and saw back. Until I turned so I wasn't bladed to him and he saw Ereshkigal in my hands. He got real polite.

I read that Cpl. Dude was drunk or intoxicated when he came close to you.
A female friend was trying out Cotherion's 12" BC and one old hiker slowed down and told her it's a cute knife but when are you going to finish the log. Had a sneaky grin but about to change all that expression when he saw me halving logs in one go with 18" Mr Singh. On all honesty the BC chops way better than ASTK but i guess it was the appeal.

Ah..."little brown man"...you shouldn't have mess with that..
 
I love khuk stories:) You guys may not know this about me, but sometimes I get a little long winded talking about mine;)

It's funny you should mention it. Just this morning I didn't scare myself, but I was surprised. These blades never cease to amaze me.

Our display pool uses a chlorinating system that requires special thick plastic "packs" filled with chlorine tablets. In theory, you open them by grabbing the pull tab off the pack and insert it into the chlorinator. In reality, the stupid tabs are usually places on the packs from the factory too warm and FUSE to the plastic. This usually means either taking a pair of pliers and yanking them off, or taking a large pocket knife and sort of "chopping" them off with a robust upward cut.

I didn't have pliers or a pocket knife with me this morning. What I did have was a Sgt. made 15" Siru. I just rediscovered this knife in my collection last night. I was digging through my khuk drawer when I came across a long forgotten yet VERY well made 15" Siru. If I remember correctly, our good forum friend Sarge carried one of these on his last trip to the sandbox. I can see why! Sleek yet strong, light yet formidable when snapped through the air. It's the kind of knife that would be right at home zipping a white-hot line of surgical fire across the meatiest part of the body, or cleaving wrist bones with a ferocious snap cut. At any rate, this particular specimen needed a clean up and mild blade touch up. I decided I'd bring it along in the shoulder holster today. It was a good balance between one of lighter 12" blades and a heavy chiruwa bruiser.

At any rate, the chlorine needed to be topped off this morning and the cap on the pack was stuck fast. I'm getting prepped for a big sale this weekend, and my patience is running short (well shorter;)). I hold the pack down at a 45 degree angle, unholster my Siru, and give it what I think is going to be the typical glancing blow to generate enough force to pop under the cap and send it flying away.

Instead, I CLEAVE the plastic canister in twain :eek: My blow did not glance, it continued on its course cutting through a plastic cylinder 3.5" in diameter and parting or crushing the chlorine tablets within. I had no idea that would happen. I didn't hit it that hard, but I must have struck just so.

It was an impressive start to a frustrating day:D btw, the Siru is cleaned up and stropped now. Will it see more mundane utility tasks today? Certainly. Does it seem to have the soul of a fighter? Undoubtedly:D
 
It was recently for me. I took the time to properly sharpen my Farm Knife; way beyond the point that I do with a khukri. By that I mean using my Surgical Black stone on it and then I stropped it.

I think I may have gone too far this time. I now feel the need to very carefully draw it and resheath it because the thing is so dadgum sharp I get the heebie jeebies thinking about what would happen if I was the tiniest bit careless with it.

BTW it holds that edge like a champ. I spent last saturday slaying some multiflora rose with it and it did a stellar job. I've observed no noticeable loss of edge quality.
 
Back in 2009 and 2010 when I was living in Student Housing up in Provo, some friends and I would take Machetes, swords, Khukris and Hawks into the back alley way and slice them up. Lisa (20" Sirupati) is my favorite Khukri for slicing up bottles and pop cans.

You should have seen the others from the complex check us out. Some would come over to chat and get a better view, others would sneek peaks from around the side of the building or from bedroom windows. One day we saw someone that eyes were the size of dinner plates, then a few moments later the manager of the complex came out to see what we were doing, they laughed and went back inside. Turns out that our harmless and fun activity had concerned someone enough that they felt the need to tattle on us. Provo City workers though it was cool as long as we cleaned up after our selves, they even would let us use our blades to remove trees from the alley way. :D Fun times!!
 
The big WWII is the one that's inspired the most fear over the years. The first time I realized it was sharp enough to cut soft vegetation after chopping through wood. I had been chopping some maple and avacado branches. I steeled the edge with the chakma but hadn't wiped it down or sharpened it yet when I took a lazy swing at a dandelion. fwip. Clean through. Oh, crap!

And for a couple of camping trips it raised some eyebrows. One girl asked "Why do you have that?" God bless the Mrs. She just said "Oh he collects those, they're hand made in Nepal". Later a buddy picked it up after he'd had a few. That truly frightened me. "Dude, that thing is sharp, you could take somebody's hand off". He never played with Geoff's old Estwing but he couldn't resist the pull of the WWII. I didn't leave it out where just anyone could pick it up after that.

Almost forgot. At a pirate faire another guy had a khukuri. It looked fancy but it wasn't that big and it looked like a tourist trinket. I showed him the old Kumar and he said "Oh $#!%, that thing's real". :D

Frank
 
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Kumar sure knew how to make 'em. If you get a chance, Frank, snag something by Thirtha. I think you'll find it very Kumar-like.
 
Coupla summers ago I was down in the creek hacking back some prickly overgrowth with a Tarwar (a long-blade Tarwar can cut it back without getting stickers in your hands). Some poor unsuspecting hiker came wandering down the creek & was slightly concerned that she just had stumbled upon a potential Freddy Kruger (we subsequently made friends).
 
That was a funny story Jay, I have one similar.

I was visiting my inlaws and my sister in law was complaining about some tree's that fell in the back yard. They all knew I collected knives but really had only seen my pocket knives at this point. My wife pipped up "Oh my husband can easily take care of the, go get your big knife babe!". I go to the back of the car and pull out my 22" Dui Churra. There eyes all got big and my sis in law told the kids to "get inside where its safe :rolleyes:". Her husband doesnt have cutting tools of any kind even though they live on a mountain in the poconos and are back in the woods :confused:. I proceded to take care of all the tree's in the yard and clean it all up (my wife helped using the HI 15" AK that I got her and she's super proud of :D). When we were all done the sister in law thanks us but says "Do you really need knives THAT big?" before I get a word out my wife goes "Oh these? These are small ones that we use for light work;)"

I will say the big Dui Churra is one of the few knives I own that I still dont completley feel comfortable weilding. Kind of like owning a wolf/dog you just always wonder if its gonna nail you when you aint paying attention.
 
... the sister in law thanks us but says "Do you really need knives THAT big?" before I get a word out my wife goes "Oh these? These are small ones that we use for light work;)"
...

That line should go down in the hall of fame. Quite a wife you have there.
 
Last night. My wife, whom I have designated "Midget", brought her friend, whom I have designated "Tits McGee", over for my awesome london broil and red potatoes dinner. Tits McGee was marveling at the sweet scar I have in my inner left calf from when I got a little over zealous with my Condor Parang, it bounced off of a knot, and the tip gave me a kiss. I showed the 24" machete to her and she was like "wow, that thing is huge!"...then I asked if she wanted to see my new toy...showed her my 20" CAK and she was all "SWEET BABY JESUS! THAT IS MASSIVE! IT LOOKS LIKE A BOOMERANG!"
Then I explained the reason for the curve and she asked to hold it, she is only an inch taller than my 5'0" wife (me being 6'5") and she almost dropped it, not expecting it to be heavy. Needless to say, she was afraid of it.
 
On Friday my Tarwar, Indo sword and the Hanuman came to work with me. I have a little sword stand I bought at the Army Navy store that they rest in. The Hanuman and Indo sword are both too decorative for me to attempt to sharpen knowing I would mar the perfect blades. The tarwar gets some action now and again chopping smallish branches in the yard that it can pass thorough with one clean shot. To this end I keep it sharp as I possibly can. After perusing the sharpening guides in the links section I use the mouse pad sandpaper method. Gluing the mousepad to a piece of yardstick is the tip that really helped me get a laser edge on the big blade. I honed the tarwar's edge Fri morning before work using sandpaper up to 2000grit from the auto parts store. Not having a strop yet I finish by rolling a piece of the sandpaper up into a tube and doing the last couple of passes very lightly. I don't have much experience sharpening blades so this is the sharpest edge I have ever had by far. Back to my story, so we have a new girl at my work, Julie, and It was her first day at the shop on Friday. My buddy Rob that I work with loves the HI blades I collect, so naturally I wanted to show him how sharp I had gotten the tarwar. A piece of plain white paper from the fax machine was the test we chose. I carefully removed the tarwar from her scabbard and held her blade up then set the piece of paper lightly on the blade and pushed. All my employees were watching by this point including the new girl. The slightest push on the paper and it just melted in half down the blade like a hot knife and butter. At this Rob was like "holy $#!* that's crazy" !! My GF who works with me as well, said it reminded her of a movie scene it looked so unreal watching the paper effortlessly split. Julie stayed a good distance back and simply said "that's scary" with a look in her eyes that told me she was. After some explanation of where these blades are made and a little peek at the kamis on the HI website Julie seemed O.K. Especially with the tarwar safely back on the stand in her scabbard. I bet it's a long time before she shows up late for work though...:eek:
 
I bet it's a long time before she shows up late for work though...

It was the paper now it's your pay!

Reminded me of the scene in The Bodyguard where Whitney's silk scarf was split off by just touching the katana edge faced up.

Be very careful Hairah...the tarwar sounds so sharp already.
 
Howard, yeah she's really come around from a woman who knew squat about knives and never spent much time outside to really valuing quality tools and loving the outdoors. I feel I have converted her...still cant rid her of the Brooklyn accent though :p.

Seanmizumc. Your situation reminds me of my own, my wife is maybe 5'3 (she measures herself with heels on ;)) and I am 6'4 so the first time she saw me wielding the Dui Churra she was intensley suprised at its weight. Like "Tits Mgee" her sister could barely lift it. I explained that my prowess made it so I can easily wield such a piece of steel:cool:

Any one else's ladies get turned on when your standing there sweety with no shirt on yeilding a 2 foot piece of hardened steel :D
 
I occasionally have people come over who see me sitting there sharpening a pocket knife, and they think that's scary. When I'm done touching up the pocket knife, I usually will start on a fixed blade knife, like the Buck Nighthawk or the Kabar USMC knife. Their eyes get bigger and bigger. Finally, one of them has the courage to say something along the lines of: "that's a really big knife." I look at them, get my Crocodile Dundee on, and tell them: "that's not a knife, THIS is a knife," and pull out one of my 18" HI khuks. That usually gets a slightly hysterical laugh. For some reason, they don't usually notice the swords hanging on the walls until I'm done sharpening the knives though. If they do, they're usually not quite as disturbed.

Not nearly as bad as the times when I'm maintaining my airsoft collection. It's not like they're REAL guns, but, especially in Boulder, people freak out when you've got an M4 or M249 on your floor in pieces, and various pistols lying around the house.
 
You should see the looks I get when I'm cleaning the real thing. You wouldn't believe the number of people who's gut check response is "Those are illegal!"

 
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