Whistlinbill's Collection #6: Khukuri

[whistlinbill]

Well, the "religious rituals" comment was from Ben Lowe, who was head of
pocket knife production for Joseph Rodgers in 1971, when I spent a fairish amount in Sheffield. He had worked at Joseph Rodgers during World War II.
I feel that Ben didn't know much about Hindu religious rituals (he was an old-time Yorkshireman, through and through) but that was likely the excuse that the Rodgers management had used for not getting the contract.

The drawing you show is, I believe, the same one we sent out with the kukris
we bought off Windlass; there was also a smaller kukri, that had a horn handle
and, they said was worn mostly by officers and on guard duty (in the Gurkha regiments in the Indian Army) That kukri is considerably lighter than the
one in this drawing.) The drawing is an exact copy of the original drawing, which was lent to us by Windlass. We also included a copy of the Indian
Govt. specs that Windlass had lent us.

And, incidentally, the steel used in the Mk 3 is a British spec--and it's the same steel used for railroad rails. Sudhir Windlass said that (a number of years ago) for kukri steel, they would buy railroad rails and send them to be rolled out in a rolling mill down in the Punjab.

Regarding the styles made during World War II, by the time I had gotten
to Dehra Dun, Mr. Windlass had cleaned out the offices of all the old paperwork. I would feel sure that whatever he made at that time would
be the regular military spec. He was in business as a military contractor.
As an aside, Mr. Windlass told me that he had been to Dharan many times, but never to Kathmandu, which would cause me to believe that he was delivering kukris to the Gurkhas in Dharan. I wish I'd have asked him.

The Mk 3 is issue to the Gurkha regiments in the Indian Army. We bought them from Windlass, and they were a military contract overrun. Sometimes
I think the overrun was a little bigger than the contract! We always thought
the Mk 3's we got from Windlass were "rough", but Windlass said the Indian
Govt. wanted to pay less and wanted less finish. The troops were expected
to clean 'em up.

The Dushera kukri we had was also a military one; it was used for the
Dushera festival, when the strongest guy in the regiment has to cut the
head off a buffalo with one stroke. If it doesn't work, the regiment will
have bad luck for a year (and he'll probably have KP for the same period!)

Windlass made very few of these of these extra large kukris--after all, how many Gurkha regiments would the Indian Army have? And how many of these special kukris would they use? This was an "accommodation order" for the regiments; Sudhir Windlass was tickled that we would order a few dozen now and then--he said we were buying more than the Indian Government did!
Thanks,
Bill

[sirupate]

Hi Bill,
I am surprised that kukri manufacture would have been considered in England in WW2 (although for a while it was thought that the M43 might have been made in England), especially with the already high production levels required for the War for the established manufacturers, and of course the cost of kukri production in India was fare less, by the hundreds of workshops out there.

Post Partition, 2nd GR, 6th GR, 7th GR and 10th GR, remained with England, and where the British Gurkhas, the rest retained in India were the Indian Gorkhas. So post partition the term Gurkha was used to refer to the British Gurkha Regiments only. The term 'Gurkha' was first used by Major General Sir David Ochterlony in 1815, the father of the Gurkhas. The term Gurkha/Goorkha etc, was an abbreviation of the Nepalese Goorkhali.

Traditionally in the Gurkhas, the British Officers had the kukri or the khunda made that were used for the festival of Dasain (Nepalese), by the kami of the regiment, they wouldn't buy them from someone like Windlass.
I can't say what the post War Indian Gorkhas did or didn't do. I do know from interviewing Officers of the Gurkhas in the Indian Army, they were quite often still having their own kukri made (ref an interview in 2008).
Below Captain McCalla's kukri (both made by the regimental armourer/kami; the top one was his fighting kukri he used in Burma during WW2, the bottom one was made for the Dasain festival, and used by the Regiment;
Below another one given to me, also WW2 armourer made, which was beautifully balanced, above it for size comparison is an 8th GR kukri WW2;

All the best Simon

[Lee]

Here is the next group...

[sirupate]

Kukri no.17, most likey a WW2 IA issue kukri
No.18, tourist
No.19, most likely late 19th, or very early 20th century military issue kukri
No.20, most likely a civilian kukri WW2-1960's
No.21, civilian kukri circa WW2

[Atlantia]

Hi Bill,

#18 is an interesting beastie!
Many of these were made in the early part of the last century for the British 'Raj' market as decorator pieces.
I'm sure there is a printed advertisment floating around somewhere from the first quarter 20thC, showing them with other 'familiar' 'indo-persian' weapons made for the same purpose which now are often optimistically described as 'ceremonial' or 'parade'.
The mix of styles is fantastic, the exaggerated Kukri blade decorated in chiseled 'indo persian' style, the rather nice Tulwar hilt. What a great thing!

I've often wondered if some of these were married up with older hilts. Even the one on yours is every bit as good (better in fact) that a hilt on a fine persian wootz Shamshir bladed Tulwar that I own.

#21 is shown with the same combination frog and karda/chakmak pouches that are usually seen with the Indian ww2 era private purchase Kukri like #1 & #2.

Best
Gene

[Berkley]

Originally Posted by Atlantia

#18 is an interesting beastie!
Many of these were made in the early part of the last century for the British 'Raj' market as decorator pieces.
I'm sure there is a printed advertisment floating around somewhere from the first quarter 20thC, showing them with other 'familiar' 'indo-persian' weapons made for the same purpose which now are often optimistically described as 'ceremonial' or 'parade'.

From the 1927 Francis Bannerman Catalog:

[Atlantia]

Originally Posted by Berkley

From the 1927 Francis Bannerman Catalog:

And as if by magic........
1927, I was close!

Thanks buddy!

I think they are fantastic, I'd like one myself.