As with all khukuris from Himalayan Imports there are hand forged from spring steel with a differential hardening. The Sirupati family are much lighter and more slender than the Ang Kholas and are generally either used for lighter brush work or martial arts applications. These two belonged to Russ Slate (Rusty on Bladeforums). Fit and finish were high. Here is a shot of a fifteen inch Sirupatis from the Himalayan Imports website :
The khukuris were mainly used alongside some blades from Ontario that Russ also sent along.
Blade Geometry
It is immediately obvious that the blade drop on the khukuri can be a
major advantage in heavy chopping as it allows the wrist to be used in a
stronger position. This reduces the chance of injury, increases ergonomics
and significantly lowers the rate of fatigue. The convex edge on the
khukuris with the light hollow relief is also a very efficient pattern for
cutting hard woods. It gives high penetration with minimal wedging. The
fully flat ground blades like the Ontario Survival bowie will stick fast in
woods that the Sirupatis will be very fluid cutting through.
Edge Holding
The Survival and Marine Raider bowie were sharpened and used for about an
hours worth of chopping, ranging from light bush cutting to heavy chopping
in thick woods. At the end neither blade could be used to do precision
cutting with the region of the blade used in the wood working. The edge did
not respond well to steeling and had to be reset with an x-coarse DMT hone.
After the same amount of work the Sirupatis are easily brought back to near
fully sharpness with a light burnishing with the chakmas and a couple of
passes on a fine ceramic rod. This greater edge holding seen with the
khukuris is due to a combination of factors including quality of heat
treatment and lower stress in use because of the inherent smoothness of cut
of the convex profile and the more optimal wrist position due to the dropped
blade.
Handle Ergonomics
The Ontario handles can be very abrasive because of the ridges and induce
high impacts off of the very sharp end hook. A handle should have a hook at
the end to drive off of, but the curvature should be more gradual and it
should be flared out to reduce impact. The khukuri grips are well designed
but are too small for me personally so there is some hand cramping. My hand
fits nicely on my twenty inch model which has an identical shaped grip which
is just longer.
Chopping Performance
Chopping speed goes 15" Sirupati, Marine Raider bowie , 12" Sirupati, Survival bowie. The biggest problem with the bowies is not raw penetration by they tend to stick or wedge in thick woods, especially the Survival bowie.
The Sirupatis were used alongside several blades from Ontario for an extended period of time, commentary can be seen on the following page :
In short, the Sirupatis fared well against the Ontario blades and outperformed them in several respects with regards to chopping and the thinner Ontario blades generally out sliced the thicker khukuris.
You can comment on this review by dropping me an email : cliffstamp[REMOVE]@cutleryscience.com.
| Last updated : | Tue Apr 15 12:20:04 NDT 2003 |
| Tue Apr 13 17:14:55 NDT 1999 |