The Service #1 is the standard issue khukuri to the soldiers in the Nepalese Army. This one weighs 493 g, and is fifteen inches in total length with a ten inch blade that is a considerable 0.39" in thickness. It is a hand forged blade, exported out of Nepal and sold out of the US by Craig Gottlieb of Gurkha House. This one was sent by Craig to be reviewed.
UPDATE, Craig Gottlieb stopped importing these khukuris a few years ago and no longer is connected to Gurkha House. Traditional khukuris hand made in Nepal can still be found through Bill Martino of Himalayan Imports.
The blade was free of any lines or deep scratches which can be a sign of weakness. The handle had a few patches which showed a little wear, but was just cosmetic. The scabbard felt solid and the stitching was tight and even. The khukuri would catch on the wood inside the scabbard when sheathing but this will smoothen in time. The scabbard was tapped a few times off of a table to test its construction and it held up fine.
The frog (belt loop) is constructed out of three pieces of leather. On the Himalayan Imports khukuris it is one band, a much simpler and stronger design. The Gurkha House frog had slits in a folded over piece of hide connected to the band of hide around the scabbard. Button like pieces of brass are connected to the loops and inserted into these slits to secure the loops to the scabbard. Lots of places for wear to set in and degrade the frog.
The karda (small knife) and chakma (burnisher) look to be of good quality with a solid grip to steel bond. The blade finish on the karda was however a bit rough, it was badly burred near the tip. The chakma was used to smooth this out. A light honing would be required to make it fully sharp, however the edge is thin and even on both sides.
The balance point is at about the recurve point on the blade. It is lighter in hand than the fifteen inch Ang Khola so it will not have the chopping ability but should fare better in lighter utility work. The handle is a little too small for my hand. But probably well balanced for the blade size. The edge was however burred significantly to one side and thus very blunt, it would not for example bite into cloth at all. The burr also resisted removal with a ceramic rod, a sign of burnt steel, or a too soft tempering.
The khukuri was used for some light wood working for about an hour, mainly limbing some dead-fall and then sectioning the wood. The blade performed well, chopping nicely. The small handle was somewhat uncomfortable as the butt-cap could be abrasive, a thick gloves would prevent this problem. The khukuri held up decently well fine, no edge chipping and the blade and the butt-cap were still secure. However the blade had been dented in two places, possibly knot contacts. The dents were about one millimeter deep at maximum and about five millimeters long. This isn't a good sign as the chops were light, and tends to strengthen the possibility of a steel problem first suspected because of the initial edge burr.
An x-coarse DMT hone was used to remove the dents, the blade was easy to grind and a uniform and crisp edge was formed. The khukuri was then used to chop up some seasoned scrap, a piece of log siding. Full heavy chops were used, the wood saw some fracture from the force of the impacts. After the chopping the blade had no damage and still was easily sharp enough to cut up some old fabric well that was lying around. The x-coarse finish bit in really well and the strong recurve makes an excellent slicer. In general though, knives used primarily for heavy chopping should be given a fine polish as this makes a more durable edge. As expected, the initial damage was a sign of weak steel at the edge. Many knives are like this at first, the true edge holding and durability only comes out after a few sharpenings.
The Service #1 khukuri and several other knives were used for a variety of tasks which are described on the following page :
TUSK , Uluchet , and Himalayan Imports and Gurkha House khukuris
The Service #1 khukuri from Gurkha House was a solid performer on most
woodworking and capable of handling considerably heavy work. It has enough
blade heavy balance to allow a decently powerful chop, and is not that heavy
that the fatigue is excessive on lighter work. The steel takes an
aggressive edge well (x-coarse DMT) and hold it for quite awhile before
blunting significantly. It did impact a little initially but this reduced
each time the edge was sharpened. The blade did suffer damage from the
harder toughness tests but these do tend to damage most blades, and there
were no gross failures, the khukuri was still very functional. The only
real negative aspect is that the handle was too small (personal issue), and
the butt-cap loosened a little which is easily fixed with some epoxy.
| Last updated : | Fri Apr 11 14:36:12 NDT 2003 |
| Tue Mar 30 13:25:27 NST 1999 |