Ontario bolo , khukuri , bowies and Himalayan Imports Sirupati

Specifications

The Himalayan Imports Sirupatis are forged from spring steel with a selective hardening, the edge is much harder than the spine and tang. The Ontario knives are uniformly hardened 1095 steel. More details :

CG is the center of gravity or balance point of the blade. The total length on the khukuris was measured from the middle of the butt cap to the end of the blade in a straight line perpendicular to the butt cap. In regards to the edge thickness, yes, the Ontario Khukuri is actually thicker before the edge than at the spine, as if the edge was applied to the wrong side of the blade. Note that while the edge on the khukuris are thick, they are ground fairly acute compared to the bevels on the Ontario models.

UPDATE : it would have been informative to measure the edge width and thickness and thus deduce the angle for the Ontario blades with the v-ground bevels. For the khukuris this can be estimated by measuring a double bevel at say 1/16" and 1/4" from the blade edge, or by constructing a full convex profile as illustrated in the review of the Valiant Golok.

Wood working

The Bolo stands out for light work, with the thinnest edge it penetrates well with low force. It is also the most neutral in balance and thus has the lowest fatigue rate. On heavier chopping it suffers from a lack of power. The twelve Sirupati is hampered here as well for similar reasons and its performance is close to the Bolo. On large woods the Marine Raider and the fifteen inch Sirupati are much better and about even in ability. The Marine Raider gets slightly better penetration, but the Sirupati is more fluid with less feedback The Survival bowie is essentially a compromise between the Bolo and the Marine Raider bowie. The Ontario Khukuri isn't functional because the lack of a primary grind and the very thick edge.

To get a more quantitative perspective, the blades were used to cut some one by eight inch hardwood slabs and the number of chops recorded. The results :

The blades fell in rank as expected based on how they felt for general brush work. The Ontario Khukuri could not actually cut the wood, but could break it apart if enough force was used. Of course this would not work on wood of any size.

As a side note, the coating on the Ontario knives comes off very quickly during chopping and any hard contacts knocks large pieces off. Underneath the coating the primary grind is revealed to be very rough. It looks to have no polishing done after the shaping. This could easily develop into a serious problem with rust because of the lack of corrosion resistance of the very rough finish. In regards to edge holding on wood the Sirupatis have a definite advantage as noted in their main review. As well the handles on the Ontarios were found to be too abrasive to be used for long term chopping without gloves.

Lighter cutting

On cardboard the Survival bowie easily out cut the Raider due to its much thinner grind and it was also easier to use as it was lighter. The Bolo far out performed both bowies due to its blade curvature and thinner edge. The Survival bowie was however easier to use than the Bolo for tip work as it had a finer point. The Himalayan Imports khukuris were hampered due to the thicker edge, but their blade curvature offered similar advantages to the Bolo deep scallop. In short, the Bolo was the best in making long cuts with the lowest wrist fatigue and the Survival could do the finest tip work.

On rope held under tension, the Bolo again was the leader. The Survival and Marine Raider bowies followed, with the Sirupatis close behind. The Sirupatis performed much better on ropes than on the cardboard as the rope doesn't wedge as badly. The recurve of the Bolo and Himalayan Imports khukuris also allowed them to cut stiff materials like plastic strapping while the bowies would just tend to skid. However when slicing on a cutting board the opposite behavior is seen with the bowies doing well and the Bolo and Sirupatis being unable to get the edge flat to do the necessary cutting. So in short, in slashing at ropes or webbing under tension the Bolo is the clear choice, but when cutting them up loose the Survival bowie is be the best choice.

In the kitchen, when working on a cutting board the Survival Bowie is the clear choice. With its relatively thin edge and straight profile it is more efficient than the Marine Raider bowie and a lot more functional than the Bolo or khukuris. However the Bolo has a nice skinning tip, and the HI khukuris excel at heavier tasks such as crushing nuts or breaking bones with the spine, and disjointing poultry and other meats.

Overall, the Bolo stands out for lighter work, with the Survival bowie coming ahead in areas where the curvature of the Bolo can be problematic. The Marine Raider bowie is significantly behind and the Ontario khukuri is so poor is is basically not functional. The Sirupatis generally don't cut well on binding materials like cardboard and such, but the relatively acute edge and dropped blade does make them decently efficient on slashing ropes and such.

Pseudo can openers

The knives were stabbed about a dozen times through the roof of an old car, then were used to make three foot long cuts in the roof and finally were hacking into various metal parts. The Bolo had the best shallow penetration, but the Survival bowie pulled readily ahead on forceful stabs as it didn't have the very wide tip of the Bolo. The marine Raider bowie was slightly behind the Survival bowie. The khukuri had little stabbing ability however it was the only knife that could chop unassisted through the roof as a swing could lead with the point making a pseudo-stab. With the other knives, the khukuri was used as a mallet to chisel them through the roof. The Bolo was easiest to cut with in this manner, but the Survival bowie was easier to turn as it was more narrow. The coating came off in large pieces (centimeters long) from the khukuri impacts, and the spines saw slight chipping (a few millimeters deep). The guard on the Marine Raider bowie was also slightly loosened by all the hammering.

None of the blades suffered tip damage beyond slight impacting, less than a millimeter. The edges were damaged in severity as with the more obtuse edges showing the least damage. The khukuri showed no visible damage to the edge or tip. The Bolo took the most damage followed by the Survival and the Marine Raider bowies which fared much better. The spots that showed the most indentation were when they were directly used to chop which had denting two to three times as much as what was seen when they were used as a chisel. For comparison, the edge on the Marine Raider was in better shape than the TUSK when used for similar work, the Survival was slightly worse. All knives had a lot of edge left to cut as regions had not seen contact with metal, and even the indented sections could saw through seat belts and such. The Bolo was actually more efficient slicing with its worst section of blade than the khukuri with its best due to the much more efficient cutting geometry. On the worst blade it only took a few minutes with a file to clean off the debris and the a coarse stone to reset the edges. The only lasting effect was a few minor nicks that would be hard to make out at arms length.

Lots of lateral load

The blades were all stabbed forcefully into a piece of two by eight, with no problems. However when they were subjected to some prying after the stabs, the Bolo lost a half an inch of tip very easily. The bowies and the khukuri didn't get enough penetration to actually break wood out when pressed to the side as the tips would distort the wood enough so that the blades could be brought down directly against the wood. This was repeated with a four by four without problems, and finally they were stabbed through a piece of half inch press board and the handled walked on to fore them flat to the board. Again the bowies and khukuris had no problems.

The knives were also stuck in a stump, at both the tip (three to four inches locked in place), and half way on the blade, and subjected to various forces. The Bolo flexed readily, but remained in one piece under even heavy loads, but the handle bent rather easily. The Survival however cracked in half very easily, without any significant effort and lost about six inches of blade. The Marine Raider bowie and khukuri were unaffected in the slightest by the heaviest prying. No bend was evident in the handle or the blades and they could not even be flexed significantly. They are much thicker than the Bolo or Survival bowie. The Bolo was later broken by working it back and forth from one side to the other until it snapped clean.

The edges of the blade then saw a concentrated heavy load. The edge was set into a corner of a four by four with a ten lbs maul and then the handles were pressed down until the wood broke out. At first the blades were just pressed on, but as they were locked so deep in the wood the handles finally had to be walked on before they would clear out from the wood. None of the knives had any problems. Note that doing this broke two TUSKs with far less effort, without having to walk on the blades nor have them set with a maul.

Entertainment

The Marine Raider and khukuri were used to break up some concrete bricks. The blades took from six to a dozen hits to crack the brick. The khukuri was easier to use for hammering with the spine as the recurve made a nice focus point. The Marine Raider made a better hammer with the butt of the handle as the khukuri tended to want to tilt forward and was very awkward hammering in this fashion. The spines were lightly stippled by the impacts and slight hole in the butt was visible where the handle material had worn off of the tang. The Marine Raider was then used as a throwing knife for awhile. The point offered solid penetration even when the knife was thrown with little force. Throws from the handle were safer than the blade because of the sharpened false edge. It performed well for about a dozen throws at distances of ; with no rotation, 1/2 rotation, full rotation, and finally 1 1/2 rotations through a max distance of about 20 feet.

Overview

Comments on the results can be seen in the main review of the Sirupatis and the Ontario blades