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Chiruwa Ang Khola Khukuri Review

Out in the wild, there is a diverse array of tasks to be accomplished. Any tool designed for one challenge is likely to fail at others. The Khukuri, a knife from Nepal used by the famed Gorkhas, is designed to break this mold by excelleing at a variety of heavy and finer work. Himalayan Imports has sent a 16.5" Chiruwa Ang Khola Khukuri for testing, and I'm impressed. Skip to testing photos!

Background
    This Khukuri (like all from Himalayan Imports) is handforged in Nepal by Kamis, men who have been making knives their entire lives, and who have generations of ancestors that have done the same. It seems wise to suppose that they know what they are doing! For more information on the history of khukuris and the people who make them, visit here. Because they are made by hand, each Khukuri is slightly different in size and shape, and the handles are made from different materials. The one being tested, a Chiruwa Ang Khola model, is 16.75" (42.5cm) from the tip of the blade to the center of the back of the handle, 7/16" (1.1cm) thick at the base of the spine, and has a handle made of Neem.




Reverse side of knives and sheath
Ergonomics
    First holding the Khukuri, it's apparent that this blade is made for chopping. At just under  1 3/4 lbs (.8kg), this is an incredibly hefty knife. The center of gravity lies 2.5" (6.4cm) in front of the bolster and begs to bring the blade downwards through a target. The wood scales are made of neem, a type of mahogany native to Asia. The wood section of the handle is 4.5" (11.4cm) long and is of an ideal thickness. People with small hands shouldn't have a problem, yet those with large hands will still find plenty to grab onto. Two features separate this handle from any that I've seen before. At the back, it flares both upwards and downwards. At first, I was skeptical of this design, as it seemed the upward flare would impede downward swinging, yet I didn't think that a few centuries of bladesmiths could really be wrong. It was slightly awkward to hold the first few times, since I was used to more traditional handles, but it quickly won me over. The upward flare doesn't get in the way of downward swinging, and actually makes the grip more secure. The second peculiar feature is the large ridge in the middle of the handle. It too has proven to be a clever feature; by resting between two fingers and gripping the palm, it locks the hand in place and affords more control over the blade. For most tasks, this ridge rests between the middle and ring fingers, but if more control is desired, it can be placed between the ring and little fingers, or beneath all of the fingers (with thumb and forefinger gripping the brass bolster). In my time with this knife, the ability to 'lock in' at each place on the handle has proven useful. Further enhancing ergonomics is the drop in size from the area forward of the ridge to that behind it, (about 3/16", .5cm in height). This helps the ring and little finger secure a good grip.     These features combine to make an exceptionally secure grip out of a natural material - something very important when more than a pound and half of razor sharp steel is being swung about.
Construction and Finish
    The khukuri's blade is so finely crafted that it may be misconstrued as nothing more than a work of art. At the base of the spine, it is 7/16" (1.1cm) thick, and gradually tapers to a point, leaving a large amount of steel ahead of the handle. The first inch and a half (3.8cm) of the blade (which includes the cho) is not ground to an edge, a further half inch (1.3cm) remains unsharpened. This later proved to be great feature (shown below). The notch in the blade is called the cho; no one is quite sure what it's original purpose was or what significance it had, but it stays in the blade as tradition. The blade has two chirras (dui chirra style) which are the concave indentations which are above the edge. Their stated purpose is to decrease weight without compromising strength, but in my opinion their geometry makes the blade more effective at chopping and splitting as well. The spine is beveled to form a crest as shown in the photo below; this improves esthetics, but makes the khukuri slightly more difficult to use as a hammer, such as for tent pegs. I don't know why exactly this is done, but considering the khukuri's history as a weapon, I would not be surprised if it is meant as a tool to concentrate the force of a backwards blow.     
    The blade is made from the leaf spring of a light truck (most likely a Mercedez Benz or Saab) which has properties resembling 5160 spring steel. For a knife this large, all forms of stainless steel are not an option, as there is currently no stainless alloy which can both be hardened to take an edge, yet remain as strong as is necessary for chopping tasks. When steel is made hard, as is necessary to be sharpened and remain sharp, it also becomes brittle and loses strength. The kamis use a technique called differential hardening to ensure that the blade can be both sharp and strong; the section of the edge most used for cutting is the hardest, while the spine, tip, and section near the handle remain soft. The result is a blade that stayed shaving sharp after chewing through logs, yet did not break when the tip was placed in a vice, and my entire weight was applied. Out of the box, the blade had a perfect mirror finish - in some of these photos you can see the surroundings being reflected in the blade.
    The Chiruwa's handle is peculiar among other models in its construction. Rather than a single block of material being fitted around a stick tang, full tang construction is used. The blade runs the full length and height of the handle; two scales of neem are epoxied with a native substance called laha, and then two steel rivets secure it to either side of the tang. I cannot foresee this handle having any weaknesses; it is an incredibly strong design. There are a couple of places where there is a slight gap between the scale and the steel, but this is solely cosmetic. The bolster and butt cap are fitted flush with the handle and blade. The top part of the ridge had a sharp corner which would be irritating with long use. I sanded this off, and the ridge now feels great. I am planning on oiling the wood to add water resistance, and increase the visibility of the grain. I will post instructions and results as they become available.


Sheath
    The Khukuri comes with a sheath made from water buffalo hide stitched around a wooden insert. The piece which slides up the sheath and is stitched to the belt loop is called the frog. It fits very snugly and with a bit of effort can be slid off and reversed, so that the sheath can be used left-handed. The blade fits very well - it can be smoothly drawn, yet the sheath will hold it while upside down. For someone not used to big blades, the weight of this setup on your belt may be a bit surprising at first. The stiff, wide frog minimizes the khukuri from swinging, and keeps it from becoming bothersome. My largest hike so far with it on is twelve miles, and there was no problem at all. So long as a bit of care is taken, this sheath is fine to have on while sitting down. All in all, this is a great sheath, or dap as it is called.


Karda and Chakma
    Because Khukuri's are obviously oversized for some tasks, they are used in conjunction with a karda, a small knife. The karda is 6.25" (15.9cm) overall with a 3.25"(8.3cm) long blade that's 3/16" (5mm) thick. The blade is embedded in the neem handle with laha (a native type of epoxy). The karda is actually very comfortable to use and perfect for the types of tasks to fine for the khukuri. It is quite thick, more than is desirable for the more delicate cutting tasks, and the steel is not as hard as would be preferred. Despite these shortcomings, I am quite fond of it, and the soft blade actually makes it very easy to sharpen. It's seen a variety of odd jobs from food prep to cutting drywall and has performed well at all of them. Because of its comfort in the hand and simplicity, it will see a lot more use.
Chakma top, Karda bottom.     In real life, the scratches shown are not visible. This is a trick of the camera's flash. These scratches accumulated during testing  - the finish was smooth and highly reflective out of the box.

    The chakma is basically the same as the karda except without an edge ground. During use, a knife's edge actually rolls over to one side, though this is invisible to the eye. The chakma is used to straighten this bur on the khukuri and karda through a process called 'steeling' (much like what you see done by professional chefs and a steeling rod. By periodically passing the chakma over the khukuri's edge, the edge was very obviously preserved, and sharpening was needed much less frequently. During a day of chopping, the khukuri caught a pin knot, and a tiny piece of the edge deformed (which demonstrates proper tempering - deforming is much preferred to the alternative of chpping). The chakma was able to realign the edge fairly easily; it's a great companion to the other two blades.

Into the Field
    These tools weren't made to be looked at, let's take them into the woods! The first task I had for the Chiruwa was splitting some wood. On smaller rounds, about 3" in diameter, it was nearly effortless. The khukuri's edge profile and large weight sunk itself deep into the round, one further blow with a baton-log split the round. On rounds even smaller, where a strike would be difficult to precisely center, the knife was easily batoned through. This knife quickly made its way through two dozen small rounds for firewood and very small rounds for kindling. The thick spine, large striking area, and availability of blade to be batoned makes the khukuri an exceptional splitter - indeed it is far more effective than the hardware-store hatchet that it was being compared to. How would it perform on large logs? It is unlikely that one will ever need to split a seven inch wide log without access to a full-size axe or splitting maul, but this demonstrates the power and ease with which the khukuri rips apart wood. The first strike firmly embedded the Chiruwa firmly into the white-pine round. The whole thing was then turned upside down, and swung downward so that the spine of the blade landed on the chopping block; inertia forced the log fully down onto the blade. The setup was flipped back up, and with just two more blows, the log was parted.     The khukuri particularly excels at splitting camp-size rounds for things such as firewood or bow-drill hearths. The long blade enables batoning and makes it possible to split long (6ft / 2m) staves for purposes such as making bows.

    The next challenge was to debark some of the rounds. The blade was slid underneath the bark, worked around the log, and then pried the bark off. Large sheets of bark like this can be used to waterproof a shelter, weigh down insulation such as leaves and grass, or to make a sleeping pad. Because the blade is 11.25" (28.6cm) long, and tapers nicely to a point, the bark was pulled off very easily. If this were being done on a log not yet sectioned, it would be necessary to first score the bark.
     How does the khukuri fare with chopping? Its design gives it a couple of advantages. As mentioned earlier, the center of gravity is 2.5" (6.4cm) in front of the bolster, which helps the blade gain momentum while being swung. The knife itself is very heavy, allowing a lot of energy to be generated and conserved. The blade's distinctive forward curve tremendously increases chopping power as compared to a straight blade. Finally, the convex profile of the blade and fact that the edge does not strike perpendicular to its target increases cutting ability by sliding the blade across as it pushes through. The theory became apparent fact, when I started chopping through a 9.5" (24cm) diameter, dead, hardwood tree. The khukuri really sends chips flying! It flew through the tree, with each blow noticeably bringing the log thinner. In what seemed like no time at all, the log was in two. On trunks and branches of sizes more commonly encountered, 2" - 5" (5cm-13cm), the khukuri is equally effective. Large chips are easily carved out, and it takes only a handful of strikes to get through them. For finer work, such as roughing out the stave of a bow, the khukuri can be gripped closer to the blade (or indeed with a finger or two on the unsharpened section of the blade), and shorter, more controlled strokes can be made; in this way I was able to rapidly flatten out a split limb into a board. As a chopper, the Chiruwa blows away hatchets like those commonly sold at hardware stores and is in contest only with the more expensive models. This comes at no surprise since it is alleged that in the past, khukuris have been used by Ghorkas and Ghurkas to decapitate and delimb enemies.

I set out to make a semi-stealth shelter with the khukuri. This large tree had fallen over sometime earlier, and instead of tearing up a tangle of roots, cleanly lifted a sheet of rock. It may be hard to see in the photo, but there is a three foot depression partly full of leaves where the roots used to be.








With ease, the khukuri cut seventeen logs that were 3" (8cm) to 6" (15cm) in diameter out of dead, standing wood both soft and hard. Though it provides more resistance to the blade, I preferred cutting the hardwoods such as oak because they tended to produce large, hearty chips as opposed to the small, crumbling chunks made by softwood. For delimbing trunks of trees about twenty feet tall, the khukuri is unparalleled. With one large swipe at a time, it can plow through more than a half dozen finger-width limbs - it's long blade gives plenty of striking surface and doesn't require any careful aiming. This is very useful for both cleaning the trunk and for securing a lot of thin brush as a framework for a shelter or for kindling. I then lined these logs up to form the roof of my shelter. Due to poor timing, a flash was needed for the rest of the photographs. 


All that was needed then was to cover everything with the oak leaves which littered the rest of the forest floor.
Backpack covering entrance ('crawl hole') for size comparison


Thanks to the khukuri, this shelter was able to be built solidly; in fact, I was able to stand and jump on top of it without a problem. I have digressed, back the Chiruwa Ang Khola!
    One of the reasons one would carry a large knife instead of a hatchet is the ability to use it as a drawknife. This involves holding the khukuri's handle in the dominant hand with the blade facing the user, placing the non-dominant hand on the side of the blade near the tip, and carving wood by drawing the blade towards yourself.    When wood is still green, it is much more difficult to use my first method of debarking, so I tried using the drawknife technique. It worked wonderfully; the concave section of the khukuri's edge wrapped around the log and pulled off sections much larger than would have been afforded by a straight blade. By adjusting the angle of the khukuri to the wood, I was able to control the width of the strips of bark removed. This is where the benefit of leaving an unsharpened section of the blade near the handle was first obvious. With 1.5" being left unprofiled, it was possible to put my thumb right at the cho for great control.     About 3.5 to 4.5 inches (10cm) (depending on how you look at it) in the middle of the blade is straight, which allows it to be used as a drawknife on wood.
Right hand removed to take photo
This technique works pretty well. The khukuri certainly isn't replacing a two-handled drawknife, but forever filling the roll of "jack of all trades", it definitely gets the job done. This section of the steel is somewhat softer than further towards the tip and so requires more frequent burnishing and sharpening. This method would serve for tasks such as rough-tillering a bow. The ultra-thin shavings produced make excellent tinder/kindling, which may be the only firestarter available after a rainstorm.
    How do khukuris serve as trail-blazing, brush-clearing tools? Pretty well, apparently. The Chiruwa model is very heavy and so packs a lot of power at the cost of speed. This makes it excel at chopping and splitting, yet compromises some efficiency on light vegetation. Because the blade packs so much momentum, grass and very thin vines don't provide a lot resistance - the khukuri ends up sailing right though, and it costs more energy to slow it down. Because it is somewhat slower than a lighter blade, it must be kept very sharp to clear light brush. That said, it excels at mowing through thick grass or clumps of vines if kept sharp, because there is enough resistance to slow the blade considerably. One swipe is all that is necessary to slice through wood and vines finger thick and thicker. Below is a photo of a thick, invasive (not native to our area) vine which was killing a local tree, severed cleanly by a single easy pass of the khukuri. The khukuri would not be my blade of choice for work off-trail in the jungle where the vegetation is soft. In temperate climates and hardwood forests (such as where I and most other North Americans live), however, the khukuri is ideal since it can stand up to any woody plants that gets in the way.
Same story with thinner vines:
    I have not yet used this knife for cooking at camp, but have prepared a couple of meals with it in the kitchen. Being very heavy, it's not the ideal blade for the task (unless, of course, you're splitting squash), but works well enough. Because the blade is dropped forward, it can chop, slice, and dice without having to be held at the awkward angles required by some other knives. So long as it's kept sharp, it will serve quite well for the task. For a lot of the finer work in the kitchen, the karda works well. Though I've not yet tried it out, I feel as though this blade would serve well as a spatula for handling food over the fire.
    As mentioned, the Karda worked nicely as a general purpose knife. One of the more unique tasks attempted with it (picked up from a member on bladeforums.com) was to scrape cedar bark for use as tinder. It succeeded at this as easily as its other challenges.
    The chakma was up next with the task of striking a cheap ferrocerium lighter to ignite the bark. It didn't perform as well as I'd hoped by not creating the shower of sparks seen with most other knives. It was plenty, however, to make fire.





    The only major downside to the khukuri I've observed so far is something unavoidable: its susceptibility to corrosion. Less than twenty minutes after being used in a moist enviornment, a bit of rust on the surface would begin to appear. This rust would wear off by chopping through a couple of limbs, but was a bit annoying nonetheless. It is very important to wipe the blade perfectly clean and dry before being sheathed. Because of the mirror finish, the rust from two weeks of abuse could be wiped away with a bit of WD-40. Until a stainless steel alloy is invented which will stand up to rigorous abuse, this is just a fact of life. There are, of course, potential solutions. Blades can be given a rust-resistant 'patina' by being coated for a few minutes with mustard or vinegar, or treated chemically in a process such as cold bluing. Because the khukuri is clearly an exceptional tool, I will absolutely be giving it a permanent, rust-resistant coating. Stay tuned for instructions on how, and photos of the result.
The Bottom Line
    To conclude, the khukuri is an incredible blade. Most tools which attempt to do many things end up as "jack of all trades, master of none", the Chiruwa Ang Khola Khukuri, however, proves highly adept at all tasks, and in some cases, more proficient than tools dedicated to a single task. If you are planning on doing anything more in the woods than one, single task, the khukuri is definitely the way to go. I am planning on an eight day solo into the wilderness this summer. Aside from emergency communications and first aid, the khukuri, karda, and chamak are the only things coming with me. I am confident that they can create a shelter, the tools to make fire, and procure food.
    If you are interested in buying or learning more about khukuris, please visit Himalayan Imports which made this review possible. They are an absolutely exceptional company to deal with - I encourage you to read about their history and get in touch with Aunt Yangdu. If you have any questions about khukuris or Himalayan Imports, there is a forum of loyal Himalayan Imports customers who are friendly and provided me with a lot of help (I am one of them now!), you can check it out, here.    I will also point out that Himalayan Imports sells khukuris made by the same people (the one reviewed was made by Vim Bahadur) that are different lengths and thicknesses; if you like the idea of a khukuri but 16.5" and 1.7 lbs isn't your thing, check them out.