holiday test
 

Lovely!
 

JP:

What a beauty. Can we see the blade please?

Ian.

Ian
A surprisingly medicore blade with a T section and single deep fuller. The interesting feature is the very faint engraving of an eye at the shoulder. This symbol normally appears on koras and ram daos.
http://www.jnanam.net/users/jp/decgrn.jpg

JP
 

Could you please give me the general lowdown on this particular piece .
Area , age , comments etc. ? Any comments would be much appreciated . :)

Rick
You have a mid 19th c dui chirra. The double crescents and various dots would be the marks done by a kami (knife maker) to indicate quality. Crescents were used by many cultures/countries and was also the Royal Armoury mark in Nepal and was quickly copied. The pwankh (design close to the spine) is typical for many kukris and yours appears to be well executed on this very nice blade. The grip is typical of the Newar Jat who are still known for their designs. The band in the middle is probably from a long ribbon of brass that was formed and stamped over a mold and are commonly used to set off both grips and scabbards. The insets are found to be ivory, bone and metal. If the by-knives were with the piece they would be of the same grip material but unadorned. The scabbard would have had a strap wrapped around it and secured with 2 buttons plus a pouch on the back .

Thanks very much JP ! :)

Rick:

Nice example. I like the treatment of the hilt and the blade is handsome.

JP: I've just returned from five days in Dharan in eastern Nepal (about 90 minutes by road from Biratnagar). I was excited to learn that this town is the site of a former Ghurka army base (now converted to a University campus). I was hopeful of finding some older examples of khukri, but alas there is a total ban on the sale (and manufacture) of khukri because of the Maoist insurgency. Very disapppointing!

Ian.

It's very frustrating plus hurting the economy, although they can be made for EXPORT only. It's a mess over there and no one seems to want to stop Nepal from coming under a Communist regime. The Royal Family hasn't been popular for years and the assassinations a few years back ruined any vestige of this type rule. I think there are some forum members who are Nepalese and hopefully they'll comment further.

Mediocre
 

It is pretty mediocre. But it could be a nice starter piece in my collection if you had the notion to sell it :D Still waiting on those blades you said you had coming in. It's almost Christmas and I have to get my list in to Mrs. Santa. ;)