Kukri...

[BBJW]

Originally Posted by kronckew

i believe there is a picture of the nepali museum here somewhere possibly posted by spiral (or sirupate) with one of the early kings favourite weapons, including a couple of kukhri with tulwar style handgrips. i've seen a number of indian weapons with recurved blades and tulwar handles, but believe those are larger and called something else (susson pattah?).

the mix of small principalities, tribal areas, the breakdown of the moghul empire, trade, religion, etc. really resulted in a mix of weapons being traded, captured, repaired, re-handled and reused, etc. around the area, including some rather strange ones to western eyes (like the ribbon sword). that's why afghan/nepali/indian arms are so diverse and interesting.

i have hands too big to comfortably use a traditional tulwar handle, so i have only the knowledge that my two tulwars will never be used by me. my more normal kukhri have (and will be) used, most likely as tools, but possible for other uses.

the british, having conquered, stolen, bought, bribed or inherited ownership of most of india were singularly unsuccessful in nepal, the thin red line being fought to a standstill by the short green one, the little smiling men with the bent knives forced them into a treaty based on mutual respect that still exists today resulting in the gurkha regiments of the british army which remain amongst the finest soldiers in the world - and they still carry their kukhris. issue ones for parade, but they have been known to carry their family heirloom ones when they really mean business.

anyhow, here is a link to a few tulwar hilted kukhri from the ikrs forum

Tulwar hilted kukhri

and a more general historical link, 1st picture is of 3 kora hilted kukhri from the nepal national museum

Historical link

Here is a photo of my tulwar gripped kukri. It is circa 1800. For scale I put in an officers kukri from around 1950 and one with a similar arsenal mark to the one posted. I caught "kukri fever" years ago.

Cheers
bbjw

[Flavio]

Hi all, I found this interesting picture of a kukri with some kind of tulwar re-worked handle (brass pommel).

[spiral]

Nice kukri Flavio! well made blade, good fullers, could definatly be of ww1 or slightly earlier. Nice price as well, sometimes they go a fair bit more than that.

The kora handled ones are from Nepal the genuine tulwar handled ones from the Punjab , but there are many are fakes & or composites of the tulwar handle ones with kukri blades, made in India & Nepal & by unscrupulos western dealers, this has probaby been occuring throughout the 20th century.

Here one of my smaller wall displays. The top one of these is a typical high quality Punjabi Sikh Sossun Patta {Liilly leaf.} style bladed kukri with tulwar handle from C.1850 or earlier.




Fantastic quality blade you show with the composite brass handle! never spotted that photo that on the net, where is it from? {If its ok to say?}

Spiral

[Flavio]

Thank you Spiral !! The picture is from a catalogue of well known Italian house of auctions specialized on old weapons.

[spiral]

Cheers Flavio!

Spiral