I now own a Khukiri

(Copy and pasted from a thread I made in the ECF because I can't be assed to be original.)

Pictures of the blade forthcoming. But while out at my Mom's family's reunion I wandered over to a garage sale with my Mom and picked up a khukiri and an atlas from 1953 (I think) for thirty five dollars. I feel awesome.

Blade's old too (and dull, which I'll talk to my Dad about to see if I can ammend that if I want). Apparently was the woman's dad's or grandpa's or something. Wanna say a steel blade with a wooden handle, has a lion on the pummel (a bit beaten), and a pretty well-worn leather sheath. Looks like it came with some kind of throwing knife or something too.

Atlas was ten bucks, came from the fifties, and is just generally fun to look at and read because all the nations (especially in Africa) are so different. Will compliment the globe I have from the eighties well. It's also very big. Some school/library edition. Even stamped "For library use only" on the inside.

Nice find :3

Snipin's a good job mate.

The khukiri was a headtaking blade...
Enjoy it! :D

Sexiness, Aaron. I love picking up cool old stuff like that, although I'm more a fan of Bowies than khukuris myself. Still, go out and shank something. That's how I interpret YOLO.

Thank ye.

And doing a small bit of price surfing also, I found knives like this valued at something like ninety dollars. And I got this for twenty-five (was thirty but bartered down when I offered to purchase the atlas too... lowered that to the amount I wanted off on the atlas. :Shrug:). So, I think I got a killer deal.

Also Mata, when I got it one of my first thoughts was that I could totally cosplay as the Snoipah now. I should be able to throw the costume together easily enough. Just need a secondary weapon mock up, like the razor back or something. LOL.

Also, pics.



Laid it all out for you and added my working knife (A Sog, Flash series knife) for comparisons. Plus a tape-measure, obviously. All ontop of the dully noted atlas.



Zoomed.

There's a manufacturer's mark or something on it which I should get a closer look of to figure out who made it and when. Would be interesting.

Now THAT's a knife.

Do you know the significance of the notches in the blade? owo

(Also, you are ready to cosplay a sniper - you just need a secondary? So you... Already have one of his primaries lying around your house? o.o')

I have my brother's air-soft sniper rifle which I could pass off as a Machina if I needed to.

And as far as I know, the notches are just there. I do not know where they came from, or whay they are there, or when they were put in. They're just there.

Oh okay XD You had me worried there for a moment.

Is it okay if I imagine that, in some ancient battlefield, that knife took two heads? More importantly, do you get a speed and health bonus for those hea- *shot*

Lmao.

I did look at them close and the notches are rather uneven and different. But slightly. Certainly enough to know they probably weren't added when in production and probably by the hand of the original user. Whether or not he actually used it to kill anyone is beyond me.

The notches are there to prevent blood from running onto the handle and making the blade slip from the user's hands.

Ooooh okay. Rats. >3<

Eh, works for me.

Yes, you NEED to do a Sniper cosplay.

I could.

You should.

V wrote:

The notches are there to prevent blood from running onto the handle and making the blade slip from the user's hands.

That's a common explanation, but I'm leery of it. It's probably a similar sort of thing with "blood grooves" on European swords - it's all marketing with little regard for fact. I think a more probable explanation is that it has religious significance: it's intended to represent the trident of Shiva, the goddess of destruction. Either way, a bit of googling mostly seems to indicate that the real reason has been lost to time.

The smaller blades are traditionally a steel-flint striker (the chamak, the dull one) and an auxiliary knife (the karda, also used as a sharpener).



Kukris actually have a really weird and (to me) interesting history. They are actually distant cousins of the Egyptian khopesh.

Cool slashymetal. Can't say I've been to a garage sale in ages.

Eo wrote:

V wrote:

The notches are there to prevent blood from running onto the handle and making the blade slip from the user's hands.

That's a common explanation, but I'm leery of it. It's probably a similar sort of thing with "blood grooves" on European swords - it's all marketing with little regard for fact. I think a more probable explanation is that it has religious significance: it's intended to represent the trident of Shiva, the goddess of destruction. Either way, a bit of googling mostly seems to indicate that the real reason has been lost to time.

The smaller blades are traditionally a steel-flint striker (the chamak, the dull one) and an auxiliary knife (the karda, also used as a sharpener).



Kukris actually have a really weird and (to me) interesting history. They are actually distant cousins of the Egyptian khopesh.

When one says "Siva is the God of Destruction" I get a little itch. Though it is true, it's also a sort of blunt, generalized description of Siva's role in Hinduism. Who is something of the force that the roots out the old and gnarled parts of the universe and then keeps it until it can be reborn. He's sort of responsible for universal transformation as well.

/merp


Either way, the notches are there and I don't know if they're a detractor of its value or not. If it is for blood, I may never let them be used for that purpose.

Also doing some reading I've found the smaller knife that came with it is the Karda. A little auxiliary knife. Or the Chakmak.