I recently bought a cold steel kukri. I did not know what to expect, so I will give a little review of it before I get into my post.

I got one of the lower end Kukris from Cold Steel. I think I may have paid too much for it, but I didn’t want to drop 100$ just yet on an HI model. The knife itself is solid, and hefty enough to do some solid chopping, which is about the extent of what I have used it for so far. I have used to shave some kindling off of a log for my fire pit, which is where I practice most of my fire craft. My only real issue so far is the factory edge. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was pretty dull. I know it is a lower end model, but I wasn’t expecting it to barely chop wood! It would literally bounce off of some of the logs I had on my woodpile. Well, about five minutes with a file and it was sharp enough to do most of the chores I needed it for (i.e. brush clearing, limb chopping etc). Overall, the price was right, it seems very strong, and it has held to edge that I put on it pretty well.

Now, to the meat of my post, what now? I know that the Ghurka's use this knife for everything from fighting to food prep, but most of the techniques I find on the web are for fighting. Can anyone give me a good resource for different techniques for employing a Kukri other than as a machete? There may not be anything else it can do besides chop, but I am just very curious about what else I can do with it.

Garrett

One of my sons has the CS LTC and it is his hands-down favorite big knife. He uses it for everything, choosing different grips (on the spine of the blade) for different non-chopping tasks. The best I can tell you is make an effort to actually use it in the woods and don't be shy about grasping it along the spine. For example, it's a passible drawknife. It works something like an ulu for slicing / chopping food. And so on.

Regards,

Tom

I dunno if this is the one you've purchased, but IIRC their lower end model is far thinner than most real khukuris; something like 2.75mm as opposed to nearly 8mm. It's more of a machete (thin) that's just shaped like a khukuri. The weight of the real ones is part of the reason they chop well.

I purchased a knockoff khukuri, like an Indian tourist piece or something, probably made of pot metal or some other cheap metal. Still, it was thick, and after a little sharpening I could chop through a 1.5" tree limb with little effort. It's still not really sharp.... for example, it won't cut through a thick handfull of tall, dead grass, but I'm workin on it <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Use it for anything you'd use a large knife for (batoning, shaving, etc) or a small hatchet. As mentioned in the reply below, you can grab onto the spine of the blade for greater control and use it as a draw knife, or maybe dig with it.

Just be careful and stay safe!

You're spot on. The $20 model is a funny shaped machete @ 2.75mm.



The LTC is 4.75mm thick.



And they have a new model coming in July that is about 8mm thick, at least at the portion near the handle (I have not seen one, nor do I know anything about it).



FWIW, I like the shape of the LTC - lots of belly on the blade, and my son heartily agrees. To me it looks like it has a little parang influence in the shape (discounting the khukri downwards bend).

None of these would be as cool as a really good HI model, of course - at least, that's what I get from reading reviews. OTOH, the LTC is not nearly as heavy to pack as a "real" one...

Tom

I got a knock on the door one morning. One of my new nieghbors was a retired Ghurka visiting his nephew. They noticed the Tibetan prayer flags on my patio, gamelon CD playing in competition with my Deadhead nieghbor and decided to find out who( or what <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />) was inside. I was honoured with a basic lesson in Bantu fighting and a HI blade. Kukhris evolved into many shapes; some pure fighting, work tools or combinations. Are they effective? Well, fuel use pressures have nearly stripped Nepal of vital woodlands in recent decades and I'd rather face the local wannabee 300 lb Hell's Angel than any 5' tall Kukhri armed Ghurka ! It's an interesting ethnic tool,reflecting an ancient design used since the greeks at Troy. Knife,chopper,sword in one. Just be carefull. This tool is very unforgiving to the careless.

to slice people's heads off?

Uhmmm....

Actually, the kukri is the result of hundreds of years of refinement to make a single tool that posses maximum versatility and portability. Traditionally, the kukri is pretty much THE EDC item for the Gurkas. They hold it as highly as the Swiss place thier little red goodie, the Swedes the mora, the Fins the pukko and us Yanks the bowie. All of these, even the SAK can kill, but realistically, while is part of the design, they are tools. Hard working tools.

*gets off soapbox*

And I apologize if you were trying to be funny and my day left that part of my brain paralized. :P

One problem is that what you have is NOT a khukuri, but a khukuri shaped machete...
I have one, and I have both HI and KH khukuri's, and there is NO similarity between the way they handle... The real khukuri's are almost useless for cutting light stuff because they are too heavy to swing fast... Your CS one is much better for that... BUT, the second you get to anything big enough to have any bark on it, the whole situation reverses itself... I have stopped using my GB Forest Axe for anything smaller than six inches because I can almost always cut it faster with my khukuri...
Things up to around 1.5 to 2 inches are cut with one swing, and, for me at least, a lot less difficulty, because the blade is long enough that you do not have to aim perfectly to hit the limb, and I also seem to have a lot more control...
I also can use both hands on it like a draw-knife to smooth the stump before spraying it with tar to seal it.

I have a Khukri that my Dad bought back in the 70s. It has a 16" blade. This site tells how to prep it for survival: http://www.m4040.com/Survival/Ghurka/Khukri%20Modification.htm I sharpened mine and reshaped and wrapped the grip with para chord but I am not real impressed with the Khukri as a cutting tool. I have only been using it for a week. It is to heavy and short to swing fast like a machete and lacks the bite of a similar weight belt ax. I am going to keep working with it for awhile to see if I find a better strategy for using it. I see the possible advantage of the length of the blade being safer than a hand ax. I also can see me using it as a drawing knife which might come in handy. I guess the verdict is still out for me. I hope you get some useful info or technique for using it. It would help me too.

David Enoch

I've seen a number of 70s era "kukris". Made out of old tin cans and fenders, I think. Utterly worthless. Too heavy, too soft.

Start with a good one, and you can't go wrong. Start with a bad one, and at best, you loose money, at worse, you go to the ER.

I think anyone who really wants to test out a Khuk should try an HI Khuk before making a decision. In a world full of imposters, these are the real thing and there is a very big difference.