twolfnm
Member
A Khouple of KHHI Khukuris:
(Sorry, I had to delete the smileys to make this post go through. The pics were more important. Assume that I'm grinning, winking, and laughing wherever that would be appropriate.)
Here ya go, people. The 9" "Chukuri", and the 12" "Beast", slightly customized by yours truly.
Don't be misled by any of the inferior copycats out there, these guys are the real deal, the original Khukuri House. They have 3 other sites, but this is their main one:
http://TheKhukuriHouse.com
Introduction:
I own a lot of blades, and I like to create collections of each type before I move on to the next. Long story short, I decided to build up a khukuri collection about 6 months ago. Through reading a lot of comments and quite a few reviews on the various blade sites, I found there are only a few companies that everyone will mention if you ask where to buy a genuine, handmade, Nepalese khukuri that not only looks good, but is completely functional. Out of the three companies that everyone prefers, I wasn't impressed with my purchase from the one company, and the other doesn't interest me for several reasons, so I started to seriously consider Khukuri House Handicraft Industry, KHHI.
I began with 7 models in mind, and wanting more information on each, I started e-mailing with the Managing Director at KHHI, Mr. Saroj Lama Tamang, or SLT, as he prefers to be called. Since I could only afford two at the time, we went back and forth, discussing the details of those 7 and more, and which would be the best for a first order.
They offer a great customization service, and SLT is an extremely helpful guy, so exploring options and details went back and forth for 2 months. After coming up with some nicely customized final designs, I placed the order for these two. Being completely enamored with khukuris at this point, I now have plans for up to 12 more, and I already have a few additional custom designs ready to go. Yeah, I've been bit by the Khukuri Bug, and hard! Well, there are worse things in life, and as all of us blade enthusiasts know, obtaining khuks is a relatively inexpensive pursuit. This works really well for me, because the next katanas I want will be pretty expensive.
Historical overview:
There is an incredible amount of information regarding khukuris on the 'net. I'll be very brief here and let you fine folks do your own research if they interest you. Since I'm advocating KHHI, I'd say to start with the substantial amount of historical info and research compiled by SLT on his main site, thekhukurihouse.com.
Since the 1500's, khuks have been traditionally made in every blade length from 7"/17cm to 22.5"/50cm. There is no "original" or "authentic" size or weight, they have always varied widely. The most commonly seen over time, either as weapons or tools, range from 10"-12" or 25cm-30cm and weigh 1.25-2.00 lbs or 550-900g. However, the Nepalese still use all different sizes, with some of the most awesome being the sacrificial blades that are around 4 lbs/1800g or far more. Personally, I wouldn't want to swing one of those for very long! But one might be nice as a final touch to a collection.
Full Disclosure:
After seeing and using the KHHI products, realizing who these people truly are, and what their goals and plans are for the future of khukuris, the Kamis, and the others involved in producing them? I've developed a business relationship with KHHI. Having owned a business for 32+ years, I now offer business advice, website modifications, and much more to SLT and the people at KHHI. I received a very nice discount on this order for giving them a few great ideas, but from here on out, I'll be receiving khukuris as compensation for my efforts. Due to this screwy economy, I'm a grad student again. Honestly, right now, this is the only way I can acquire ANY new toys. So I am biased, but I'll do my best to be completely objective in this and all subsequent reviews of their products.
If I'm not, call me on it. I want to produce good, honest reviews, not commercials.
My camera is a 10 year old 2.1 megapixel rig, so I'll apologize in advance for the quality of some photos, close-ups in particular.
I think it does OK with the other pics. Cloud cover came and went, so that's the reason for the color variations.
Well, let's get to it!
Initial impressions and Descriptions:
Being my first custom order, I kept changing details for a few weeks. However, after the final order was placed, it took about 3 weeks for my khuks to come up on their production schedule. The impressive part is that it took the package only FOUR days to arrive in NM from Nepal! I've had stuff from Virginia take longer to get here.
They came in the standard heavy-duty cardboard box:
(As usual, right click and hit "View" or whatever to see the full pic.)
There's a Letter of Authenticity from SLT. It's printed on a sheet of thin plastic/paper, a nice touch:
The wrapping is a cloth "Lokta" paper, really cool stuff, and tied off with some plain ol' rubber bands:
Some brochures, plastic-wrapped sheaths, and LOTS of bubble wrap on the khuks:
Thick wood wedges to preserve the mouths of the sheaths, and the khuks are in more plastic. These babies are SOAKED in light oil. They can't get any rust on them:
I wiped the oil off the blades, and you see that the handles are wrapped separately, and also oiled well. There's no way they could dry out and crack if they got stuck in transit:
OK, all cleaned up. That oil is some military stuff, it smells like Cosmoline!
The blades are stock configurations, but I had them made heavier.
The grips are custom for these models, but the basis for the Beast is the Black Operation Enduring Freedom grip, and the Chukuri is based on the Forestman grip.
As far as color choices, their stock varies so much that all you can specify is light brown or dark brown, both East Indian Rosewood. Remember, KHHI's philosophy is to make working khuks. You'll wind up with some interesting variations anyway, but they don't want to promise anything they can't deliver in the future. That kinda stinks, but I can see their point.
But I really did want a khuk in the future with purple rosewood. Oh, well ...
The guards are my idea. These models don't come like that.
The sheaths are the Operation Iraqi Freedom for the Beast, and I just asked for some different colors and contrast on the standard Chukuri sheath.
My future stuff will have all custom grips, and some custom blades, all my designs. I even have some completely custom designs now.
For the sheaths, you can't get too fancy. Stick to the cream, brown, black and green.
I'm going for contrast and variation. You MIGHT be able get them in a "natural" and color them yourself, but I haven't asked about that yet, so just ask them yourself if that sounds like something you might want to do.
OK, a bit of honest evaluation. The tip of the blade on the Beast was dinged a lil'. It was very small, and I tried to get a close-up shot of that, but as I said, this camera won't get that type of definition up close. Some clown must have dropped the box right on the end. A pass on each side with the file fixed that. SLT has taken a little advice from me to prevent that type of thing in the future.
Statistics: (There are actually a LOT of khukuri dimensions, but I'm going to keep this simple.)
The Beast:
1025g/2.24 lbs
12" blade
5" handle (with exposed tang)
17.25" OAL
18" OAL in sheath
POB: 3" in front of guard (Remember, that guard brings the POB back a little.)
Blade angle: 24*
The Chukuri:
617g/1.36 lbs
9" blade
5 3/8" handle (with exposed tang)
14.25" OAL
15.25" OAL in sheath
POB: 1.5" in front of guard
Blade angle: 30*
Handling Characteristics:
Disclaimer and Warning: Be EXTREMELY CAREFUL with a live blade! I'm an athletic guy with excellent balance, spatial perception, and reflexes. However easy I might make this sound, I was ALWAYS mindful of the fact that at any time I could slice myself wide open with one of my new khukuris, and I could be dead before I was able to stop the blood from spurting out of me.
DO YOU UNDERSTAND? Allright then, back to the fun.
The Chukuri is blindingly fast, as you would imagine. But there is enough weight up front to let you know it's a khuk. At 617g, it weighs almost exactly twice what my USMC Ka-Bar weighs, but you wouldn't know it from swinging it. I had some multiple layers of cardboard that I stabbed with both of these khuks, and they both did great, but the Chukuri won that round. It was too bad that the rain destroyed all that cardboard, I didn't get any pics of that action.
As a stabbing weapon, with that long forward upper edge being very sharp, it would easily go through the Level IIIA body armor that certain criminal gangs like to wear. Anything less than that wouldn't even slow it down. Personally, I think it's too light for seriously destructive hacking, but as a slice-and-dice tool or weapon, it would do nicely. Plus, ya gotta love that profile, it just looks evil!
The Beast is also very quick, but you know this baby has some weight, it just growls at ya, "I'm a KHUKURI!"
At 1025g, this is about the most weight I'd want for a tool or weapon that was being used on an extended basis, as in all day long. I chopped through a 6" log with it and never became the least bit tired. If I had to mow through a crowd of goblins (Jeff Cooper reference) leaving a trail of severed limbs and heads, this would be the toy for the job. I could handle another half pound/250g, but that might get to be rough after a while.
Bottom line, the Chukuri would make a great truck knife, and it's still small enough to carry on your belt, you'd never know it was there. The Beast is definitely a serious hacking/chopping blade, but it's also light enough to carry or use all day. I mean, think about it, it weighs what a liter of water weighs. I'd recommend it for the camper/hiker types, it'll pack that extra punch you need for firewood, etc.
Test Cutting:
Now, what some of you have been waiting for: Chopping, hacking, plainly destructive goodness!
I didn't have any sawponies, so I rigged up a stout lil' folding seat and tarped out the area around it.
This 6" diameter wood is probably spruce, and I got it from the rough-sawn lumber place right up the street. We use these logs in construction here in NM, as structural posts and decorative ceiling beams.
I haven't tried chopping green, live wood with either of these yet. I kinda already decimated all the trees that needed to be trimmed with another toy I bought a while back, so that will have to wait. Regardless, a live branch is relatively soft.
The logs I have are DRY and HARD! I hit one with my ax just to see how nasty it was, and the ax bit in 1/2". That's all. This is tough stuff!
First the little Chukuri. I took about a dozen whacks at the log, and it did pretty good for a light khuk:
Well, that wasn't good enough, so I got a timer, set it for a minute, and went to town! It hacked a nice little channel in that rock-hard wood:
OK, I really didn't expect it to go blazing through that log, but it made an impressive dent in it.
Now, for its big brother, the Beast. I rolled the log over, and I'd intended to stop after about a dozen whacks, but I caught myself too late, so I kept going for what counted out to be about a minute total time:
Now that was more like it! The weight helped a lot, but I was still just chipping off little pieces of that dried out log, getting a little chunk here and there. The mess looked like a sawdust pile more than anything.
I hacked at it again, except I timed a minute on this run:
Well, I was just getting warmed up at this point, so I decided to go through the whole log. Remember, the back side had already been hacked out a lil' by the Chukuri. It took another 4 minutes, a little over 7 minutes total time, to get this:
By that time I'm definitely breathing hard, and my big ol' redneck neighbor has come around to see what I'm doing. He was impressed with the khuk, and the damage it did. But of course, he pointed out that this is what my chainsaw is for. Aw, what does he know? I was having FUN! Not that I'd do this again on a log 6" thick, but I just wanted to see what that khuk could do, and how quickly it would go through something like that. Besides, y'all needed some cool pics!
The khuks both cleaned up like new, a little carburetor cleaner took off the little bits of sap. Oh, here's the scrap, at least what landed on the 12'x14' tarp. Like I said, dry little pieces. Now that I think back on it, that was a LOT of work:
Some Quality Observations:
Here you see how straight and consistent the blades and tangs are, and that the guards are blended in to look like part of the whole unit, one chunk of steel:
Now, for some nit-picking. Remember these are made by hand, and although they are VERY nice, I don't want anyone saying that I'm claiming KHHI produces perfect khuks. But their quality control is very good. Hey, there are a few TINY spots of filler in places where the saw or grinder didn't track perfectly. To maintain complete honesty with you, I have to point these things out, small as they are. To preserve overall objectivity, or as close as I can get to it, I believe you'll appreciate these pics:
There's some little grease and sap smudges I missed on the handles, I cleaned them off later. But in these pics, you can see the slight imperfections. I'm not complaining.
Judge for yourself, but these are definitely not like the train wreck in quality control I bought from an otherwise fine company, and there wasn't a speck of rust on either of these, contrary to another popular brand.
Conclusion:
Well, as I said, these khuks and KHHI in general impressed me enough that I'm doing some things for them now. But I'll have to lighten up on criticizing any other khuk companies. The best way to show you're better than the other guys is to do just that, show you provide a better value. So I'll try not to drag anyone through the mud anymore. I'm beyond happy with these khuks or I wouldn't have entered into this relationship with them.
Needless to say, I'll recommend KHHI to anyone. Even considering shipping, they are priced far below the other 2 reputable companies. I also think a khuk is a great multipurpose tool, serving as a knife, a hatchet, and a machete. As far as bang for the buck in a working khukuri, they are great. I think they're the best. Give them a try.
.
(Sorry, I had to delete the smileys to make this post go through. The pics were more important. Assume that I'm grinning, winking, and laughing wherever that would be appropriate.)
Here ya go, people. The 9" "Chukuri", and the 12" "Beast", slightly customized by yours truly.
Don't be misled by any of the inferior copycats out there, these guys are the real deal, the original Khukuri House. They have 3 other sites, but this is their main one:
http://TheKhukuriHouse.com
Introduction:
I own a lot of blades, and I like to create collections of each type before I move on to the next. Long story short, I decided to build up a khukuri collection about 6 months ago. Through reading a lot of comments and quite a few reviews on the various blade sites, I found there are only a few companies that everyone will mention if you ask where to buy a genuine, handmade, Nepalese khukuri that not only looks good, but is completely functional. Out of the three companies that everyone prefers, I wasn't impressed with my purchase from the one company, and the other doesn't interest me for several reasons, so I started to seriously consider Khukuri House Handicraft Industry, KHHI.
I began with 7 models in mind, and wanting more information on each, I started e-mailing with the Managing Director at KHHI, Mr. Saroj Lama Tamang, or SLT, as he prefers to be called. Since I could only afford two at the time, we went back and forth, discussing the details of those 7 and more, and which would be the best for a first order.
They offer a great customization service, and SLT is an extremely helpful guy, so exploring options and details went back and forth for 2 months. After coming up with some nicely customized final designs, I placed the order for these two. Being completely enamored with khukuris at this point, I now have plans for up to 12 more, and I already have a few additional custom designs ready to go. Yeah, I've been bit by the Khukuri Bug, and hard! Well, there are worse things in life, and as all of us blade enthusiasts know, obtaining khuks is a relatively inexpensive pursuit. This works really well for me, because the next katanas I want will be pretty expensive.
Historical overview:
There is an incredible amount of information regarding khukuris on the 'net. I'll be very brief here and let you fine folks do your own research if they interest you. Since I'm advocating KHHI, I'd say to start with the substantial amount of historical info and research compiled by SLT on his main site, thekhukurihouse.com.
Since the 1500's, khuks have been traditionally made in every blade length from 7"/17cm to 22.5"/50cm. There is no "original" or "authentic" size or weight, they have always varied widely. The most commonly seen over time, either as weapons or tools, range from 10"-12" or 25cm-30cm and weigh 1.25-2.00 lbs or 550-900g. However, the Nepalese still use all different sizes, with some of the most awesome being the sacrificial blades that are around 4 lbs/1800g or far more. Personally, I wouldn't want to swing one of those for very long! But one might be nice as a final touch to a collection.
Full Disclosure:
After seeing and using the KHHI products, realizing who these people truly are, and what their goals and plans are for the future of khukuris, the Kamis, and the others involved in producing them? I've developed a business relationship with KHHI. Having owned a business for 32+ years, I now offer business advice, website modifications, and much more to SLT and the people at KHHI. I received a very nice discount on this order for giving them a few great ideas, but from here on out, I'll be receiving khukuris as compensation for my efforts. Due to this screwy economy, I'm a grad student again. Honestly, right now, this is the only way I can acquire ANY new toys. So I am biased, but I'll do my best to be completely objective in this and all subsequent reviews of their products.
If I'm not, call me on it. I want to produce good, honest reviews, not commercials.
My camera is a 10 year old 2.1 megapixel rig, so I'll apologize in advance for the quality of some photos, close-ups in particular.
I think it does OK with the other pics. Cloud cover came and went, so that's the reason for the color variations.
Well, let's get to it!
Initial impressions and Descriptions:
Being my first custom order, I kept changing details for a few weeks. However, after the final order was placed, it took about 3 weeks for my khuks to come up on their production schedule. The impressive part is that it took the package only FOUR days to arrive in NM from Nepal! I've had stuff from Virginia take longer to get here.
They came in the standard heavy-duty cardboard box:
(As usual, right click and hit "View" or whatever to see the full pic.)
There's a Letter of Authenticity from SLT. It's printed on a sheet of thin plastic/paper, a nice touch:
The wrapping is a cloth "Lokta" paper, really cool stuff, and tied off with some plain ol' rubber bands:
Some brochures, plastic-wrapped sheaths, and LOTS of bubble wrap on the khuks:
Thick wood wedges to preserve the mouths of the sheaths, and the khuks are in more plastic. These babies are SOAKED in light oil. They can't get any rust on them:
I wiped the oil off the blades, and you see that the handles are wrapped separately, and also oiled well. There's no way they could dry out and crack if they got stuck in transit:
OK, all cleaned up. That oil is some military stuff, it smells like Cosmoline!
The blades are stock configurations, but I had them made heavier.
The grips are custom for these models, but the basis for the Beast is the Black Operation Enduring Freedom grip, and the Chukuri is based on the Forestman grip.
As far as color choices, their stock varies so much that all you can specify is light brown or dark brown, both East Indian Rosewood. Remember, KHHI's philosophy is to make working khuks. You'll wind up with some interesting variations anyway, but they don't want to promise anything they can't deliver in the future. That kinda stinks, but I can see their point.
But I really did want a khuk in the future with purple rosewood. Oh, well ...
The guards are my idea. These models don't come like that.
The sheaths are the Operation Iraqi Freedom for the Beast, and I just asked for some different colors and contrast on the standard Chukuri sheath.
My future stuff will have all custom grips, and some custom blades, all my designs. I even have some completely custom designs now.
For the sheaths, you can't get too fancy. Stick to the cream, brown, black and green.
I'm going for contrast and variation. You MIGHT be able get them in a "natural" and color them yourself, but I haven't asked about that yet, so just ask them yourself if that sounds like something you might want to do.
OK, a bit of honest evaluation. The tip of the blade on the Beast was dinged a lil'. It was very small, and I tried to get a close-up shot of that, but as I said, this camera won't get that type of definition up close. Some clown must have dropped the box right on the end. A pass on each side with the file fixed that. SLT has taken a little advice from me to prevent that type of thing in the future.
Statistics: (There are actually a LOT of khukuri dimensions, but I'm going to keep this simple.)
The Beast:
1025g/2.24 lbs
12" blade
5" handle (with exposed tang)
17.25" OAL
18" OAL in sheath
POB: 3" in front of guard (Remember, that guard brings the POB back a little.)
Blade angle: 24*
The Chukuri:
617g/1.36 lbs
9" blade
5 3/8" handle (with exposed tang)
14.25" OAL
15.25" OAL in sheath
POB: 1.5" in front of guard
Blade angle: 30*
Handling Characteristics:
Disclaimer and Warning: Be EXTREMELY CAREFUL with a live blade! I'm an athletic guy with excellent balance, spatial perception, and reflexes. However easy I might make this sound, I was ALWAYS mindful of the fact that at any time I could slice myself wide open with one of my new khukuris, and I could be dead before I was able to stop the blood from spurting out of me.
DO YOU UNDERSTAND? Allright then, back to the fun.
The Chukuri is blindingly fast, as you would imagine. But there is enough weight up front to let you know it's a khuk. At 617g, it weighs almost exactly twice what my USMC Ka-Bar weighs, but you wouldn't know it from swinging it. I had some multiple layers of cardboard that I stabbed with both of these khuks, and they both did great, but the Chukuri won that round. It was too bad that the rain destroyed all that cardboard, I didn't get any pics of that action.
As a stabbing weapon, with that long forward upper edge being very sharp, it would easily go through the Level IIIA body armor that certain criminal gangs like to wear. Anything less than that wouldn't even slow it down. Personally, I think it's too light for seriously destructive hacking, but as a slice-and-dice tool or weapon, it would do nicely. Plus, ya gotta love that profile, it just looks evil!
The Beast is also very quick, but you know this baby has some weight, it just growls at ya, "I'm a KHUKURI!"
At 1025g, this is about the most weight I'd want for a tool or weapon that was being used on an extended basis, as in all day long. I chopped through a 6" log with it and never became the least bit tired. If I had to mow through a crowd of goblins (Jeff Cooper reference) leaving a trail of severed limbs and heads, this would be the toy for the job. I could handle another half pound/250g, but that might get to be rough after a while.
Bottom line, the Chukuri would make a great truck knife, and it's still small enough to carry on your belt, you'd never know it was there. The Beast is definitely a serious hacking/chopping blade, but it's also light enough to carry or use all day. I mean, think about it, it weighs what a liter of water weighs. I'd recommend it for the camper/hiker types, it'll pack that extra punch you need for firewood, etc.
Test Cutting:
Now, what some of you have been waiting for: Chopping, hacking, plainly destructive goodness!
I didn't have any sawponies, so I rigged up a stout lil' folding seat and tarped out the area around it.
This 6" diameter wood is probably spruce, and I got it from the rough-sawn lumber place right up the street. We use these logs in construction here in NM, as structural posts and decorative ceiling beams.
I haven't tried chopping green, live wood with either of these yet. I kinda already decimated all the trees that needed to be trimmed with another toy I bought a while back, so that will have to wait. Regardless, a live branch is relatively soft.
The logs I have are DRY and HARD! I hit one with my ax just to see how nasty it was, and the ax bit in 1/2". That's all. This is tough stuff!
First the little Chukuri. I took about a dozen whacks at the log, and it did pretty good for a light khuk:
Well, that wasn't good enough, so I got a timer, set it for a minute, and went to town! It hacked a nice little channel in that rock-hard wood:
OK, I really didn't expect it to go blazing through that log, but it made an impressive dent in it.
Now, for its big brother, the Beast. I rolled the log over, and I'd intended to stop after about a dozen whacks, but I caught myself too late, so I kept going for what counted out to be about a minute total time:
Now that was more like it! The weight helped a lot, but I was still just chipping off little pieces of that dried out log, getting a little chunk here and there. The mess looked like a sawdust pile more than anything.
I hacked at it again, except I timed a minute on this run:
Well, I was just getting warmed up at this point, so I decided to go through the whole log. Remember, the back side had already been hacked out a lil' by the Chukuri. It took another 4 minutes, a little over 7 minutes total time, to get this:
By that time I'm definitely breathing hard, and my big ol' redneck neighbor has come around to see what I'm doing. He was impressed with the khuk, and the damage it did. But of course, he pointed out that this is what my chainsaw is for. Aw, what does he know? I was having FUN! Not that I'd do this again on a log 6" thick, but I just wanted to see what that khuk could do, and how quickly it would go through something like that. Besides, y'all needed some cool pics!
The khuks both cleaned up like new, a little carburetor cleaner took off the little bits of sap. Oh, here's the scrap, at least what landed on the 12'x14' tarp. Like I said, dry little pieces. Now that I think back on it, that was a LOT of work:
Some Quality Observations:
Here you see how straight and consistent the blades and tangs are, and that the guards are blended in to look like part of the whole unit, one chunk of steel:
Now, for some nit-picking. Remember these are made by hand, and although they are VERY nice, I don't want anyone saying that I'm claiming KHHI produces perfect khuks. But their quality control is very good. Hey, there are a few TINY spots of filler in places where the saw or grinder didn't track perfectly. To maintain complete honesty with you, I have to point these things out, small as they are. To preserve overall objectivity, or as close as I can get to it, I believe you'll appreciate these pics:
There's some little grease and sap smudges I missed on the handles, I cleaned them off later. But in these pics, you can see the slight imperfections. I'm not complaining.
Judge for yourself, but these are definitely not like the train wreck in quality control I bought from an otherwise fine company, and there wasn't a speck of rust on either of these, contrary to another popular brand.
Conclusion:
Well, as I said, these khuks and KHHI in general impressed me enough that I'm doing some things for them now. But I'll have to lighten up on criticizing any other khuk companies. The best way to show you're better than the other guys is to do just that, show you provide a better value. So I'll try not to drag anyone through the mud anymore. I'm beyond happy with these khuks or I wouldn't have entered into this relationship with them.
Needless to say, I'll recommend KHHI to anyone. Even considering shipping, they are priced far below the other 2 reputable companies. I also think a khuk is a great multipurpose tool, serving as a knife, a hatchet, and a machete. As far as bang for the buck in a working khukuri, they are great. I think they're the best. Give them a try.
.
