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TRADITIONAL KUKRI
by John Powell
August 11, 2003 · Article spans 2 pages
For lack of a better term this refers to the hundreds of 1000s of kukris that were made by kamis in the most remote
of villages from Nepal and down through India over the centuries.
These knives are distinguished by the hard work they saw and the many details that may identify their origins. Because of
the mixture of sub-cultures, trade and nomadic nature of the jats or tribes some models just cannot be classified
with 100% accuracy.
| Top to bottom: Budhume, Hanshee,
Bhojpure, Sirupati
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A very loose rule of thumb for knives made before the mid 1800s was that the long thin bladed hanshees which evolved
into the sirupati (seerpat) came from western Nepal while the more robust and deeper bellied budhumes
(later called a bhojpure) came from the east (fig. 1A & 1B) and the two met in the Kathmandu Valley further
confusing the issue. The many tribes can be attributed to these weapons such as Limbus and Rais make only the deeper bladed
bhojpure, the Gurungs, Tamangs and Chhetris make the seerpat and the Newars are the artisans who are
responsible for many of the finely carved wooden scabbards, intricate decoration and engraved blades. If it were only as
simple as this sentence makes it sound. There are just too many variations to neatly pigeon hole the kukris that have been
made in Nepal since at least the 16th century and in India before that. Maybe not in the style we are used to seeing as
today's profile, but still were kukris designed with the basics of a wooden ridged grip attached to a distinctly curved
blade with the edge being on the inside of that curve.
The first impression of these kukris is just how hard they have been worked, repaired and used for years for everything
from chopping branches to digging ditches to dispatching enemies. The differences of blade, grip and scabbard offer many
clues as to where and what these kukris were used for and from whence they came.
This first knife (fig. 2) is a classic example of a complete and common knife that could easily represent all of Nepal and
not just one cultural pocket. A wooden grip of local sisal with a well defined ring, 5 or 6 parallel cuts in the wood, a
blade made of folded and hand hammered steel with a fuller cut along the sides near the spine and a cho of basic
design to represent shiva, a cow's hoof or the sexual organs of a multitude of gods. Take your pick as no one has
ever come up with an agreed to answer, but if you ask a Nepalese he will tell you, "It's a kukri, so it has a
cho".
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Old drawing of diamond keeper with a kukri in sash |
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The tangs of some kukris extend completely through the grip and are peened over at the butt covered with a steel pommel
plate and a diamond shaped keeper
called a hira jornu that is a traditional Nepalese design feature (fig. 3). The bolster is made of steel, the
scabbard is of goat skin dyed black with designs tooled in while the skin was wet and stretched over the wooden frame. The
strap that encircles the scabbard has 2 buttons that are attached to a small strengthened piece of leather or tendon
through a cut in the leather to keep everything from shifting (fig. 4). This system kept the knife from slipping through
the sash where it was kept at the front of the body (fig. 5). At the back of the scabbard there is a pair of miniature
scabbards to hold the karda and the chakmak and attached to these is a pocket (goji or kalti) to hold
a pouch containing tinder and maybe a small piece of flint. Attached to the pouch is a decorative detail of leather (fig.
6). to assist in its removal. Around the top of this pocket is a woven piece of dyed leather that may be just a
sarki (leather worker) showing off his skill or put there for reinforcement. He has also matched that little detail
on the strap with 2 very small bits of red leather that serve no purpose other than design. The pouch and the back of the
scabbard also show signs of embossing and the stitch that runs the entire length on the back is well made and very secure.
The karda and the chakmak are usually very basic workmanship in both the blade and the grips and these were
often lost and replaced many times. Many collectors will disregard these knives since they may not match, but they are
still an integral part of a complete kukri. In many cases there will be 2 kardas which may have been more useful
since the back of one of these could act as both a striker for flint or to hone the main blade. There also may be a small
pick between these 2 by-knives.
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Left: Tamang carrying a kukri. Right: Top of kukri pouch |
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