कुकरी or Khukri



The Khukri (pronounced ku-ke- ri, approximately) is an interesting knife/sword like tool which originates from Nepal, that is distinguished by its forward curved blade. I have lately become interested in these, so I thought I might write about it a bit.


Pictures:
http://nuz.zkusto.com/catalog/large/khukri/KH-12.jpg
http://www.bobticeknives.com/10_23_GURKHA.jpg
http://www.woocha.com/EBAY_PICS/20324717/20324717_c.jpg
http://asianworldimports.com/storefront/images/Panawal Khukri.jpg

Articles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kukri



Background Info

The Khukri is said to have descended from the Greek kopis http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Kopis.png ,machaira http://www.aurorahistoryboutique.com/products/A000045.jpg, or other similarly forward curved blades, around 4 bc. Or, It is thought that is may have been copied by Nepalese smiths from a similar roman knife during the spread of the roman empire. Unfortunately, I can't figure out what that knife or sword was. It is difficult to know, there are many similar knives through ought the region, such as the aforementioned machaira and kopis, the Spanish facalta http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcata , and various knives with the signature forward curve in the Himalayan region which could have descended from or be the original source of the khukri.

The khukri was made famous most of all by the Ghurkas of Nepal, who used them with devastating effect against the English when they attempted to invade Nepal from India, in the Anglo- Nepal War or Ghurka war of 1814. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Nepal_War Forgive my lack of detail on this, I'm not much on history. Anyway, since their defeat in Nepal, the British have instead recruited the fearsome Ghurkas for their own use, along with their Khukris.

(If you must know more about history and ghurkas and such, look in the wikipedia article or Google it, I can't stand history like this myself, so I'm just going to talk about the knife itself. Besides, I would make a fool of myself trying to be a historian.)

Anyway, despite the ghurkas who use this knife in combat, it is very common in Nepal, and supposedly every household has at least one khukri as an all purpose knife, for chopping wood, skinning animals, as a machete, or any other sort of chore one might need to do in Nepal. There is a myth around that whenever the khukri is drawn, is must draw blood from an enemy, or from its owner before it can be sheathed. This is just a rumor apparently spread to help the ghurkas keep their fearsome image. In reality, the Khukri is an all purpose tool for the Nepalese, whether it is for chopping heads or for chopping wood.

The spelling is not constant, since it is difficult to get an accurate representation of Nepalese into English. It is most commonly spelled khukri, kukri or kukuri, but there are more floating around.



The Knife Itself


The Khukri generally spans from 9 to 15 inches and around 1/4 an inch thick, depending on the purpose. Bigger ones are used occasionally, and there are even special sacrificial khukris several feet long used during a certain Hindu ceremony to cut the heads off of water buffaloes. But for more practical applications, the smaller ones are preferred.

(One of those especially large ones, click one the picture:
http://www.thekhukurihouse.com/Content/ProductDetail.php?ID=d1c38a09acc34845c6be3a127a5aacaf|595a0c )

The most obvious differentiating feature in the khukri is the forward curving blade. This is the secret to its effectiveness I believe. I have several of these, and you can easily cut branches in one swing, or quickly bring down small trees as well as a straight bladed knife more than twice its size would, and still keep a perfect edge. I don't know the physics as to why this blade shape seems so effective, but it really does work surprisingly well.


"Anatomy" of the Khukri.

List of names of parts of the khukri:
http://www.thekhukurihouse.com/Themes/main_pic_1.gif


As I already mentioned several times, the main feature is the large curved blade. But there are other parts to it as well, obviously.

On the blade, there is usually one deep fuller cut into the top section before it begins to curve, I believe to lighten the heavy blade, and it also may a have some sort of religious symbolism. Many parts of the khukri do, as I will explain shortly. Near the base of the blade, there is a notch called the cho or the kaudi cut into the blade. This has many explanations. It is said to be the "blood dripper" to prevent blood or whatever other fluid from reaching the handle and potentially reducing the handlers grip. It is also used to stop whatever sharpening utensil being used to sharpen it, so it does not got go to far down and scratch up the handle, or the holders hand. I think this is the most realistic reason, because it really is rather helpful when sharpening. It is also said to be and imprint of a cows hoof, (cows are sacred to Hindus, as you may know) or to represent the trident or eye of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction.

The blade is generally made from billets of high carbon steel that would be used for truck suspension, making very durable and strong blades that hold a good edge.

There are two ways the handles are constructed and attached to the blade. The most common way is to used a hollowed out, polished, and carved into shape piece of water buffalo or other horned animal's horn, which is filled with a special hot glue (I believe called lala), and then the tang (the portion of the blade in the handle that is not visible) is stuck into the glue filled handle, sealing it in place. Then usually brass fittings are added for strength and decoration.

The other type of handle is to form the tang of the handle to have the same shape as the handle, and then two hardwood pieces, most often rosewood, are bolted onto it. This method is not as good looking, but I prefer it because it is stronger than the other.

Khukri with the standard horn and brass handle:
http://www.thekhukurihouse.com/Themes/Products/Thumb/1136797520.jpg

And the full- tang riveted method:
http://www.blademasterswholesale.com/photos/SZ2103-2T.jpg

The handle usually is slightly convex, flaring out at the top and end for better grip. Often, there is a ring in the center of the handle, as you can see on the second picture above. This had some religious significance, but over time has been lost. This ring can tear up your hands during hard chopping, so it is often removed.


Sheath

The sheath is a hollowed out piece of wood in the shape of the khukri blade, which is wrapped up and tied with goat or water buffalo leather. Fairly simple piece of work, ususally a leather loop on it that you can use to wear it on your belt. Often thers is a little cone of brass stuck on the end of the sheath. Most likely for decoration, or to protect the tip.


Kadra and Chamak

You may have noticed in some pictures that I have posted, two small knives are shown along with the khukri. These are the Kadra and Chamak. The kadra is a smaller replica of the kukri, used for various small precise jobs the big heavy khukri is too large for. The Chama is a piece of unsharpened harder steel, used to sharpen or burnish the khukri and the kadra. All traditional khukris come with these two knives.


Making

I have described most of the making process, but here is a good depiction of the making of a khukri, with pictures!
http://www.thekhukurihouse.com/Content/Makings/Khukuri.php


Potential Problems

Since the Khukri is most often made for Nepalese, who are generally smaller than westerners, a genuine Nepalese khukri may have a handle too small for you. This is not always the case, but this occasionally is a problem for some.

As I had said before, the ring sometimes put around the center of the handle can be rather uncomfortable. There are a few ways to deal with this. You can grind it off, which is the easiest way. You can buy one without the ring, or you can deal with it. What I did though, to improve the grip and neutralize the discomfort of this ring was to wrap the wood area on all the rest of the handle, excluding the ring, with some good black athletic tape. This made the handle somewhat bigger, lessening the difference of levels between the ring and the rest of the handle, making it much more comfortable. Now I can use it without discomfort.

Since the blade is made from high-carbon steel and not stainless steel, there is potential for rust to form. This is not a huge problem. Just be sure to keep the blade out of excessive moisture, keep it well oiled, and clean it every now and then. You can use any sort of gun oil similar product that you can find at a hardware store. Heck, WD-40 will work if you have nothing else. Also, to prevent rust you can blue the metal, a process that coats the metal with a blue (bet you never would have guessed that!) surface that gives decent, but not 100% sure rust protection. The easiest way to do this is cold bluing, for which I would recommend this stuff:
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/Store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=1072&title=OXPHO-BLUE

Because of the climate change from Nepal to the U.S or wherever else you might live, occasionally the wood of the handle (if it has a wooden handle) will shrink in the drier climate, leaving a small space between the brass but cap and the small handle. This can tear up the back of your hand occasionally, so if you have that space on your khukri, wrap it in athletic tape to cover the space, or fill it with super glue or epoxy.

Sometimes after a heavy chopping job, the edge of the khukri will roll a bit. As long as it doesn’t chip or break, you can use the chamak or other sharpening steel to burnish or realign the edge, and then re-sharpen to make it as good as new.

Beware of stainless steel when buying a khukri or any blade that you will actually use. Stainless steel is too hard, so it will chip and shatter too easily, and does not sharpen up very nicely. So for example, DO NOT BUY this khukri: http://www.worldofwholesale.biz/custom/cart/edit.asp?p=92278
Bad bad bad...


Buying a Khukri

If you want to buy one of these, there are a few good options, depending on your budget.

If you want an authentic traditional Nepalese khukri, these websites can give you that.

http://www.thekhukurihouse.com/
http://www.himalayan-imports.com/

Both make good quality khukris. The first site is cheaper, ranging from $30 - $40. The second supposedly makes better quality khukris, but they are much more expensive. Both sites have a very high shipping cost, since they ship all the way from Nepal, so except to pay around $40 more than you see as the price.


Some more...

If you don't care about traditional style or not, you can buy one of these khukris from Cold Steel. As you can see, they don't have the notch at the base of the handle, the kadra and chamak, the fullers, or the leather sheath, and have something black baked onto them, all unlike the traditional khukris.

http://www.coldsteel.com/kukri.html

I don't particularly care for these. They are much more expensive even than the ones from Nepal, and in my opinion of lesser quality. And I just happen to prefer the traditional style anyway.


For the Frugal Fellows...

If you still want a traditional khukri for a fair price that doesn’t need to be shipped from Nepal, you can get an Indian army surplus one. They still retain all of the traditional characteristics, and get the job done. They are a bit uglier than the more expensive versions, but are far cheaper, and are quite a good deal for the money. I believe they are still handmade, adding a bit to the ugliness. One of the problems with these surplus khukris is that they are usually not sharpened. This was not a problem for me, but for those of you without a bunch of whetstones and various oils and sandpapers lying around, this may be a problem.

Here are a few of the cheaper alternatives. They are ugly and unsharpened, bit they are sturdy, and still have the strong 1/4 inch high carbon steel blades like the traditional.

http://www.blademasterswholesale.com/Genuine_Ghurka_Kukhri_p/sz2103.htm
http://www.worldofwholesale.biz/custom/cart/edit.asp?p=111981
http://www.worldofwholesale.biz/custom/cart/edit.asp?p=111980
http://www.mwart.com/xq/ASP.product/pid.2976/qx/silver-trim-kukri.htm
http://www.reliks.com/merchant.ihtml?pid=1949

For these Khukris, this is what I would recommend doing. Clean off and crap or grease on it. Use some very very fine sandpaper to clean up and polish the blade, and sand down the ring on the handle if you want to. If you want, blue the blade with the stuff I recommended above. Then, get some cheap whetstone/s and sharpen it up. Just rub the stone at and angle along the blade till you get the desired sharpness. Wrap the handle with some athletic tape for grip, get some cheap gun oil to polish and prevent rust on the blade along with the bluing, and you will have a good and trustworthy khukri. Even after buying all that stuff, I guarantee it will be nearly as good as the expensive traditional, and much cheaper.


End

And that is just about it! I would recommend the Khukri to anybody who wants a good solid all- purpose knife. It can be your wood chopper, skinner, whittler, screwdriver, shovel, trowel, and if you happen to be a world war era ghurka, a decapitator. I do think it is a wonderful knife, and would highly recommend it.



Enjoy!

-Vajrabhairava