Introducing myself, with my old khukri pictures! :)
Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2014 4:50 pm
Hi!
I have been an infrequent poster here (have commented on a couple posts here and there), but apart from that, I have never formally introduced myself. So here I am and please brace yourselves for a longish post (with the somewhat compensation of pictures!).
So well, I am 37, been a resident of Bombay (refuse to call it Mumbai
) since the last 10 years (and now wanting out!). I am a journalist by profession -- at least have been for the last 6 or so years before I switched streams, have mostly been in and out of content ever since. So this is the brief bio, more as and when 
I have had a fascination for sharp objects and guns, from ever since I can remember -- having been grown around them. From traditional koytas to daavs and khukris in my later years. Lots of khukris at that!
I spent a great deal of my childhood in the picturesque and boutiquish Bhutan thanks to my father (now so expensive it hurts my eyes to even look!!), and well, grew fonder of sharp objects some more. The fact that my father was gifted a khukri every now and then (he being the only fire officer in the whole of that particular region), helped. Almost all of these were hand-made, sheaths embroidered or painted, and came in various and sometimes peculiar shapes. From the regular khukri as we know and love, to an oblique khukri, a TANTO handmade khukri, to a double-edged stiletto-like one and one that was almost like a Samurai sword. Almost all of them for extreme rough use.
We also made our own bows and arrows and Khurrus, (pretty good if I may say so), and many a game fell to them (only for my Bhutanese counterparts' consumption back then, even more grumpily!!)
SADLY, my father gave most of them away (you see, this was the early 80s and it was apparently bad omen to keep so many sharp objects at home if you were a Brahmin, a Maharashtrian at that <which was an anomaly by itself>. Besides, it was kinda taboo to keep them at home, given how small government houses were, or are (at least mine was, fire personnel are the most ignored in this country, sadly), and well, I guess it was mostly looked down upon. So well.
He did retain three of them though, two with wooden scabbards and one with none
And a couple of other sharp-like objects.
So well, many years later and playing around with knives and such on my own and the fascination never waning away, I found this particular khukri at a flea market from an old Sikh gent, near where my father was last posted (Jama Masjid, Delhi). It was rusting and under tonnes of other junk and was utterly forgotten, it seems. So I lost no time in buying it for myself for el cheapo, (my father protested rather violently later but he couldn't do much about it anyway).
And I also managed to get it in my check-in baggage while raising a lot of eyebrows (the famous Delhi police) and now it sits in my bookcase, somewhat restored, and scary sharp!
So here are a few pictures. If you guys can help recognise the style/year, I would be eternally grateful. Though I suspect this one was made for ceremonial purposes, it still held some pretty sharp edge at the time of purchase.
Here goes, picture #1, in full regalia
The scabbard, picture #2
Picture number #3, unsheathed
Picture number #4, the tip. The etchings partially destroyed thanks to foolish guy who sharpened it, but then he was the only one who was not scared to
Random gratifying picture number #5
The handle and the scabbard, picture #6
View from the back, last picture, #7
(I do have high-res pictures of these and I can take more, but someone will have to tell me how to post them here)
So well, here they are! The khukri, even after years of abuse and neglect, is of solid construction, and is heavy. Not too heavy, but heavy. As Boris the Blade (from Snatch) remarked "Weight is the sign of reliability"!
I do own some other knives, though nowhere as close as you gents, but well, I do. (a couple of Opinels, a couple of Muelas, a Gerber, a couple folders <a CRKT and an Israeli army one of dubious origin>, a ceremonial Chinese traditional knife with exquisite engraving on it, and an ultra cheapo neck knife on which I practise my sharpening occasionally.
Sorry for the nonsensical user handle, my name is Shubir so I will be using that. The handle was chosen in my adolescence when internet had just arrived in India and I used it as a Yahoo id for many years so I have a particular fondness for it and I am stuck with it
PS: Please to ignore typos if any, I REALLY had an urge today to introduce myself!
Cheers~
I have been an infrequent poster here (have commented on a couple posts here and there), but apart from that, I have never formally introduced myself. So here I am and please brace yourselves for a longish post (with the somewhat compensation of pictures!).
So well, I am 37, been a resident of Bombay (refuse to call it Mumbai
) since the last 10 years (and now wanting out!). I am a journalist by profession -- at least have been for the last 6 or so years before I switched streams, have mostly been in and out of content ever since. So this is the brief bio, more as and when I have had a fascination for sharp objects and guns, from ever since I can remember -- having been grown around them. From traditional koytas to daavs and khukris in my later years. Lots of khukris at that!
I spent a great deal of my childhood in the picturesque and boutiquish Bhutan thanks to my father (now so expensive it hurts my eyes to even look!!), and well, grew fonder of sharp objects some more. The fact that my father was gifted a khukri every now and then (he being the only fire officer in the whole of that particular region), helped. Almost all of these were hand-made, sheaths embroidered or painted, and came in various and sometimes peculiar shapes. From the regular khukri as we know and love, to an oblique khukri, a TANTO handmade khukri, to a double-edged stiletto-like one and one that was almost like a Samurai sword. Almost all of them for extreme rough use.
We also made our own bows and arrows and Khurrus, (pretty good if I may say so), and many a game fell to them (only for my Bhutanese counterparts' consumption back then, even more grumpily!!)
SADLY, my father gave most of them away (you see, this was the early 80s and it was apparently bad omen to keep so many sharp objects at home if you were a Brahmin, a Maharashtrian at that <which was an anomaly by itself>. Besides, it was kinda taboo to keep them at home, given how small government houses were, or are (at least mine was, fire personnel are the most ignored in this country, sadly), and well, I guess it was mostly looked down upon. So well.
He did retain three of them though, two with wooden scabbards and one with none
And a couple of other sharp-like objects.So well, many years later and playing around with knives and such on my own and the fascination never waning away, I found this particular khukri at a flea market from an old Sikh gent, near where my father was last posted (Jama Masjid, Delhi). It was rusting and under tonnes of other junk and was utterly forgotten, it seems. So I lost no time in buying it for myself for el cheapo, (my father protested rather violently later but he couldn't do much about it anyway).
And I also managed to get it in my check-in baggage while raising a lot of eyebrows (the famous Delhi police) and now it sits in my bookcase, somewhat restored, and scary sharp!
So here are a few pictures. If you guys can help recognise the style/year, I would be eternally grateful. Though I suspect this one was made for ceremonial purposes, it still held some pretty sharp edge at the time of purchase.
Here goes, picture #1, in full regalia
The scabbard, picture #2
Picture number #3, unsheathed
Picture number #4, the tip. The etchings partially destroyed thanks to foolish guy who sharpened it, but then he was the only one who was not scared to
Random gratifying picture number #5
The handle and the scabbard, picture #6
View from the back, last picture, #7
(I do have high-res pictures of these and I can take more, but someone will have to tell me how to post them here)
So well, here they are! The khukri, even after years of abuse and neglect, is of solid construction, and is heavy. Not too heavy, but heavy. As Boris the Blade (from Snatch) remarked "Weight is the sign of reliability"!
I do own some other knives, though nowhere as close as you gents, but well, I do. (a couple of Opinels, a couple of Muelas, a Gerber, a couple folders <a CRKT and an Israeli army one of dubious origin>, a ceremonial Chinese traditional knife with exquisite engraving on it, and an ultra cheapo neck knife on which I practise my sharpening occasionally.
Sorry for the nonsensical user handle, my name is Shubir so I will be using that. The handle was chosen in my adolescence when internet had just arrived in India and I used it as a Yahoo id for many years so I have a particular fondness for it and I am stuck with it
PS: Please to ignore typos if any, I REALLY had an urge today to introduce myself!
Cheers~
