Most khukuris available in North America are low quality imports, cheap steel, and usually with a poor hardening. They are thin, soft, with poor handle attachment and are easy damaged. Not so with the blades offered by Bill Martino of Himalayan Imports. These are hand forged blades made directly by, or under the supervision of, master craftsmen. They are crafted from spring steel, leaf springs usually, and are selectively hardened by water quenching. The curved section of blade is at full hardness, close to 60 HRC, and the tip and choil area are softer as is the spine. The tang is left at full softness to handle shock and the spine steel (recycled Mercedes-Benz leaf springs). The scabbards have hardwoods liners usually covered in water buffalo hide.
This particular khukuri is a truly massive knife. It is the twenty inch model, but like all hand crafted blades there is some variance from knife to knife. This one comes in at slightly over twenty two inches in overall length, and weighs more than three pounds. The spine is a massive five eights of an inch thick (~0.06"), with a distal taper and an actually decently acute convex edge. The polish on the flats is high as is the overall fit and finish. The small tools karda (knife) and chakma (steel or burnisher), are well made and very functional. The stitching on the scabbard is neat and tight. The khukuri fits well in the scabbard, easily drawn but not loose enough to rattle or shake.
A shot of the Ang Khola family, from fifteen to twenty inches :
from the Himalayan Imports website.
The khukuri was first used to dig a small pit, four foot by six. The top layer of sod was removed, and the blade was then used edge trailing to till the soil to a depth of about six to eight inches. The point penetrated quite well and the knife could actually slice through the sod in a paddling motion by gripping the forward angled section part. Compared to a cheap hardware hatchet, the khukuri was able to cut the sod much easier and faster, and was much better at tilling the soil, and working as a makeshift shovel.
The khukuri was first used to pry pieces out of some scrap. This can easily break the tips on many "tactical" knives, but the khukuri would so this easily, getting very deep penetration and not even seeing significantly flex. With most wood over penetration was a concern as the knife could easily be driven point first completely through a piece of 2x6 or 2x8. The Ang Khola was then stabbed deeply into a round of black Spruce, and then the spine of the knife was struck with full force off of another round which would dislodge the first round. These were fairly large pieces of wood, ten inches or so thick, and over a foot long. This was repeated over a dozen times. Finally the blade was stabbed into a smaller piece of the same type of wood and the tip pounded straight through the wood with four two handed overhead swings. As an end result, the tip suffered no damage, nor was there any loosening of the grip. There was little or no impact shock, and the handle was very secure in hand despite the lack of checkering. Many blade types such as machetes would be impossible to use in such a manner as the vibration would be excessive.
Using an odd assortment of materials the edge was checked for hardness and brittleness, the items included some pop cans, a few miscellaneous tin cans, a paint can, some copper cable, a couple of soft-balls and a lawn rake. The khukuri went through the soft-balls with no effort. The pop cans were no different, including splitting them lengthwise. The tin cans offered little resistance as well. The paint can was slightly tougher but easily flew apart with a couple of chops. The copper cable was easily cut into one foot lengths. The rake tines were the only things capable of effecting the edge, which just produced some denting was was beyond the visible but could be felt. A picture of the blade in this condition, which still had no been sharpened from the digging, did not show a visible difference from its initial appearance.
Initially the intentions were to see how far the khukuri would bend before it would take a permanent set, as well as to just check the general stiffness. Bending it to failure was pretty much not a reality as the amount of force required to do so was excessive. Any piece of wood that the khukuri was lodged in would split long before the khukuri would show any visible flex let alone come close to taking a permanent bend. Since even the smaller Ang Kholas are regularly used for heavy prying with no problems, this large model effectively ignores such applications. It would split fence posts and thick pieces of wood with no problems.
Before the blades ability to cut could be examined it had to be fully sharpened. First off a butchers steel was used to align the edge, smooth out the deformation and minimize the honing time. A small dual grit Ez-Lap diamond hone (medium / fine) was then used to apply a small secondary bevel to the edge. The medium hone was used for about two dozen passes per side, and then the fine side did the same. The edge was then lightly honed with an 800 grit ceramic rod which left a hair shaving finish. The whole process from start to finish took less than ten minutes.
UPDATE, the convex nature of the edge was later restored (a couple of years after this review was written) using waterstones to craft the curvature. I currently sharpen wide convex bevels like on this khukuri freehand with small waterstones, 1000 and 4000 grit and then finish with CrO on leather to polish. If the convex bevels are very narrow they can be difficult to freehand sharpen, and more easily handled using sandpaper on a soft backing, using a stropping motion, or of course a slack belt sander.
Using the khukuri to clear some dead fall from a trail, the blade had strong penetration and was very fluid in the wood. It cuts much more fluid than a quality large heavy machete (Martindale or Barteaux for example) and gets more than twice as much penetration as a quality hatchet (Gransfors Bruks). It is also easier to use for limbing as there isn't the danger of impactions on the handle as there is with an axe. However since the khukuri is so blade heavy, a very strong wrist is required to use it for lighter work like limbing for any length of time. Using the Ang Khola for some fire starting in a wood stove, it works better than a quality hatchet for splitting, but while it cuts very well, the hatchet is generally much easier to use to make kindling as it can be used in a choked up grip much easier which greatly lowers fatigue.
The khukuri was used alongside a few other blades to get a feel for its performance and general functionality as compared to other tools often used for wood work.
A a drop point "tactical" knife with a blade length of just under ten inches made from three sixteen inch stock with a sabre flat grind. It could split the thinner woods, but had difficulty with anything larger than a two by four. A mallet needs to be used on even small felled wood. The penetration while chopping is also very low mainly due to the neutral balance which prohibits any power to be built up on the swing.
This was cheap machete, significantly heavier and more blade balanced than the drop point knife. It was much more powerful on the swing and could split wood up to a four by four without problems. However since it was fairly long, it was not as precise. It penetrated much better than the drop point as well making it generally a better chopper however it could become stuck in woods at times especially around knots and it doesn't have the necessary stiffness to break chips out. The steel was fairly soft though and serious degraded by just a quick splitting and chopping session.
The hatchet easily split scrap up to and including four by four rounds without problems. It had the necessary general wedged shape to prevent sticking in wood. It was also shorter than the machete but yet of similar balance so it was as powerful on a chop while at the same time being much more precise so kindling could be made very quickly by holding a piece of scrap and quickly cutting off strips. The hatchet got a similar level of penetration as the machete and was much more fluid in the wood, however the handle was of poor design and thus the shock was greater.
This was a regular hardware store axe that had some edge work done to thin out the bit a little. It easily split even the heavier four by fours without effort and got far better penetration than the hatchet without significant bind. However it wasn't as precise or as fast on a swing.
The Ang Khola had the length of the machete, the concentrated mass and wedged shape of the hatchet and the edge holding ability of the large fixed blade. It would match the penetration of the machete and was much more fluid in the wood. It easily lopped sections off a broken rake handle with single chops. The angled blade also allowed a much more natural wrist position which made chopping much more comfortable and greatly reduced fatigue. The axe however could out power the khukuri when full two handed swings were used driving from the hip. The khukuri however since it was one handed was generally much faster on small to medium size wood as one hand could be used to position the wood, holding it in place and advancing it through a saw horse.
A fifteen foot length on one inch nylon rope was hacked up with the above blades. This was used rope, full of dirt and grit. The khukuri effortlessly sectioned the rope producing a pile of fuzz. The hatchet could not slice the rope, and didn't have the blade width to chop thick piles. The axe chopped the rope with as much ease as the Ang Khola but could not match its speed or precision and thus the khukuri easily was more productive. The machete was no longer sharp enough to cut the rope effectively.
The khukuri was still sharp enough to cut some thin brush well (quarter inch alders), and was restored back to optimal with some work with the chakma, and a few passes with an 800 grit ceramic rod to set it back to shaving sharp.
Using a felling axe, it gave much better penetration than the khukuri, but was a poor splitter. A splitting axe was pretty much the opposite. The khukuri could gain ground on these two tools in there respective areas of intended use by using the Ang Khola two handed, but this kind of swing is much more suited to an axe. The khukuri stands out when one hand can be used free to make the work more efficient. The khukuri tip also offers much more focused penetration and can thus cut much harder materials as a chop can easily put the tip leading making a very powerful pseudo-stab .
The twenty inch Ang Khola from Himalayan Imports is an extremely strong knife with solid chopping and splitting abilities. It stays sharp for a long time, has a very durable edge and is easy to sharpen. It easily get greater penetration on woods than a quality hatchet and is just as fluid. It is also a functional limbing tool provided you can handle the weight.
This review was written in 1998, and was one of the first reviews I wrote and thus lacks a lot of the detailed specifications and comparisons of the current reviews. In particular for example the brands of the above comparison blades are not even noted let alone the geometry specifics, both of which are of course critical. I have updated some of the commentary with specific comparisons which have been done in the last few years . The blade is still going strong fives years after it was bought, and still sees regular use felling, bucking, splitting and limbing. Note as well that Himalayan Imports sells many kinds of khukuris, some lighter which are more suited to brush work like a Sirupati or Kobra, and yes some even larger and heavier than this Ang Khola.
You can comment on this review by dropping me an email : cliffstamp[REMOVE]@cutleryscience.com.
| Last updated : | Mon Apr 14 14:38:33 NDT 2003 |
| Mon Oct 26 15:11:28 NST 1998 |