HIMALAYAN IMPORTS - Special Knife Runs, One-offs, Variants, Interpretations & other past HI products

18th Century model

18th century kukri]

18th century

It is 19 inches in length and about 2.1 wide. Weight 1lbs 14 oz. Replicated after an ancient khukuri in Nepal's National Museum. Unique!

HI Seax

tool & weapon of the Anglo-Saxons, Norse Vikings and other Germanic tribes

sweet seax

two seaxes with runes etched by HI forumite Ferrous Wheel

Hanshee/M43 Hybrid Khukuri

a variant on the M43, incorporated the greater curve of the hanshee-style khukuri

'Boomerang' /forward-curving Khukuri

similar to the above 'hybrid': --
a one-of-a-kind by kami Bura, originally described as "Bura's version of a forward-curving khukuri".
I call it the "Bura boomerang" - hanshee curves, 18" overall, 5" drop.
--Berkley

Fox's Folly khukuri

Beautifully done by Bura. 20.5 inches, 37 ounces. 3.25 wide, 5/16 thick. Good karda and chakma. Scabbard by village sarki.
* Khukuri designed by HI forumite foxjaw

Movie Model khukuri

Made by Bura and he calls it a "movie model". Your guess is as good as mine, which is he saw this khukuri featured in some Hindi film. Nice khukuri with usual Bura & Co. quality. It is 21 inches and 25 ounces of very fast khukuri. The tip has a double edge. The buttcap is very unusual -- looks like Bura took a gear out of a clock for a keeper. I discovered that Bura's inspiration for the movie model came from watching the movie, "The Mummy".
--BM

movie model tip (double-edged)

movie model unusual keeper

Patang

Kumar's Museum Model Khukuri

Well, there it is. 19.5 inches and 2 pounds by Kumar.

This model is a copy of an old khukuri on display at the National Museum. Kumar has taken some liberties so that it will work for westerners. It's good work by Kumar and village sarki. No karda or chakma per original.

Bura's 'New Model'
new model kukri

Millennium Rose Special
millennium special - 'peace'

This was a one time run of Gelbu Specials (Udhaipur Style) with special engraving to commemorate the advent of the third millennium.
Specs: length -- 21 inches ; blade width -- 1.75 ; blade thickness -- just about 1/2 inch ; weight -- a bit over two pounds

shanti

shanti 'peace' and 3 roses engraved on blade

'Tiger killer' knives

top -- I love the handle on this knife -- top bone, aft horn. File work as shown below. 13 inches and 11 ounces. Beautifully fullered. Is that called a clip point? Sharp edge topside for about 3 inches. I assumed pommel is silver alloy -- non-magnetic. Very unusual guard with a thumb purchase albeit a little too small for American thumbs. Done by Shanker, the Whiz Kid, and a very nice job it is.

bottom -- 11.75 inche and 8.5 ounces by Amtrak Kami, Raju Rasaili. Good work. Handle looks like it's been worked on a lathe but we don't have a lathe so he's done this by hand and a very even job it is. Nice handle. Blade has top edge about 2 inches. Scrollwork both sides. "Beer opener" on topside. Brass guard.

--BM

knife handle (top knife)

Ghopte

This Ghopte is 15 inches even and just under 2 1/2 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick.
It is made by Kesar and is steel mounted.
It has a "stop sign" butt plate.
Kesar did the finger grooves himself but I like how they turned out! Very comfortable!
-- Chris B.

Ghopte Balance

Well now, a little paper tag attached to the scabbard with a piece of string announced that this was a "Ghopte Balance". I don't know what a Ghopte is, or how it achieves balance, but ....this is one scary little devil of a khuk. The handle is pure Kumar, very graceful and wonderfully done, and more importantly, big enough to comfortably accomodate a man sized hand with room to spare. The handle has a pronounced downward curve toward the pommel, but nothing like the curve Kumar put on that blade. I mean it is really curved, think "Hanshee-like" here.... It is, bar none, the meanest little khukuri I've ever handled, with the exception of my supernatural Sirupati by Bura.
-- Sarge

'Stubby' Bowie

The Stubby One, aka Attempt 1, has arrived. The knife is very close to what I ordered. I showed it to the wife, who kind of stared at it for a bit before deciding that it was BIG. Bill's original picture does not do this thing justice. It is deceptively massive. We may have had the error on blade length, but if I had not done so already, one look at this near miss would be enough to get me to place an order on the final product. Who knows, I might have even placed an order for a Stubby.

The handle is perfect and extremely comfortable for such a large...whatever it is. Just take a look at that beautiful crossguard. Unlike the standard AK Bowie, the large handle balances the blade very well so you can hold it with the hand on the forward handle and cut very comfortably. That wide center portion of the guard holds the hand solidly in place.

stubby

If chopping is required just slide your hand back to the bottom of the handle and add another 4 inches of leverage to your swing. Even the massive cross guard provides useful additional mass. The closest thing I have found to this is the Indian "Elephant Knife" battle axe. Perhaps in making the mistake our kami invented HI's first version of this battle axe. It can certainly serve easily as a hatchet.

Odd certainly; ugly perhaps; but, surprisingly practical.

-- N2S

D-handled khukuri
handled kukri

Here is an impressive behemoth produced to a Formite's specs during the first quarter of 2000. It is a massive piece that tops 5/8 inches in thickness.
Made by kami Sanu.

HI Bolo
hi bolo

It weighs 2 lbs. and .01 oz. Can you get any closer to the 2 lbs. I was hoping for? The blade is 12 1/2". It is 3/8" thick at the spine. It is 1 7/8" at it's widest part and 1 1/2" at it's narrowest. The wood handle is 6 1/2" in length. The bolster is 1 1/2". The long handle tapers and allows for many different grips, you can even get a hand and a half on it. The curvature of the blade is very nice, way better than my models'. The fuller is very deep. The point of balance is about 3 or 4 inches in front of the boslter. It swings very nicely, I wanted the weight to be forward distributed and it came out about where I thought it would. The flat part at the tip looks like I intended it too, I hope it works the way I want it to.

The utility knife is profiled like a straight razor. It is 4.6 oz and comfortable in the hand. The spine is 3/16" thick. The blade is 5" long, 1" wide; the handle 4" and the boslter 3/4". The point curves up nicely to a sort of chisel point on the spine. The sharpening steel is square in profile and I did not weigh or measure it. It looks like it will funtion as intended though.
-- BobWhite

Bancharo

This is the HI Bancharo. The blade is about 4.5 inches high and about 5.5 inches across. Handle is about 15 inches overall length. Weighs 32.5 ounces. The edge hardened up to khukuri hardness -- around 58 Rc I'm guessing and the thing makes a nice ring when you run a file across the edge.

This looks very much like something you would see in the village except the finish is considerably better on the HI version. BM 8/01

Falcata

falcatta scabbard

Here it is -- 27 & 1/4 inches and about 3.25 pounds. Made by Sanu. BM 7/01

falcatta, scabbard - beside 'pen'-knife

HI forumite Keith 'ferrous wheel' with HI falcatta & HI 'pen'-knife

Garu Dhaw

Bura and our new master kami, 55 year old Jag, teamed up with their 80+ years experience to bring us this HI Garu Dhaw-- presentation grade and not like you'd see in the fields of Southern India. It is 18 inches overall, weighs about 1.5 pounds and the blade is 1/4 inch thick. Here is what they had to tell us excerpted verbatim:

"THIS KNIFE IS USUALLY USE IN SOUTH PART OF INDIA IN ASSAM, MEGHALAYA AND NAGALAND. THESE PEOPLE WISH TO USE THIS KNIFE AS IT CUT'S IN MANY WAYS. THE TIP PART OF THIS KNIFE IS TO DIG THE WOOD, BAMBOO ETC. THE SECOND PART WILL HELP TO SLICE SOME THING AND THE ENDING PART WILL USE TO CUT TO PIECES THE WOOD".

So, there you have it straight from the horses mouth -- so to speak. BM 6/01

Hasiya

This is the first hasiya from BirGorkha. Made and marked by Sanu. Gelbu said 'make us a couple of hasiyas like you see in your village'. Sanu replied: 'Absolutely not. I will not make a filthy, nasty hasiya like you see in our village. I would be ashamed to put our logo on it and sign with my mark. But, I will make you a couple of the best hasiyas ever made in Nepal and you can send these to Bena'.

Here's the first and I'll have to admit it's the best hasiya I've ever seen. Overall quality typical Sanu. Magic stone mirror finish. It is overall about 11 inches with 4.25 inch handle. Weighs in at about 6 ounces. The edge seems softer than our khukuris and I guess this is for easy field sharpening and since it is not designed to chop down oak trees. I'm guessing somewhere around 53 or 54 Rc. The edge does have a near razor sharpness.

For whatever it's worth I "think" the sickle got its name of 'hasiya' because 'hasnu' (in Nepali) means to smile or laugh and the shape of the sickle is like a smile or laugh. [actually hasiya derives from the Sanskrit word amsiya meaning 'shaped like a shoulder-blade' --B. Slade]
--Bill Martino 6/01

hasiya

HI Kami medallion
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Solid brass, 2.5 inch in diameter and 5 ounces and a shade over 1/8 inch thick. Tab with hole at the top for neck carry if you are so inclined. You see the double dragons around the perimeter and the marks of the kamis inside. Top is Bura and moving clockwise we have Sher, Sanu, Kesar, Kumar and Murali. The back of the medallion is lavishly engraved.

HI ring
[Image]

For the dedicated khukuri aficionado. The one and only Himalayan Imports ring. Pure silver and 24 karat gold. Small, medium and large.