“Ring Grip” Kukris, A Fresh Perspective.

[mrcjgscott]

The main purpose of this article is to address the current and rather dangerous trend which assumes that:

“Any kukri found with either brass or steel rings around the grip is a WW2 Indian Army Issue Kukri.”


The majority of serious collectors already regard the above statement as a fallacy, but there is one ardent “enthusiast” who is the main proponent of the case for such kukri being described as genuine issue items.

I will examine the main arguments as to why these kukri are so hotly contested, and try to show that the “evidence” so far presented in favour of the above, cannot, in fact, be substantiated.

I believe the danger is mainly to new and inexperienced collectors who may read such posts and actually believe they're getting a genuine Second World War issue kukri when buying a ring handle piece, when the probability is infact extremely remote.

Many unscrupulous sellers already bank on such remarks, in order to try and artificially inflate the prices of these otherwise common kukri. Whilst there can be no debate that such kukris were available to purchase privately by individual officers and men, the dispute here is whether or not they were issued by the Indian Army to Gurkha forces.

Wartime produced examples are found more commonly with steel rings around the hilt, and a steel pommel cap. The most obvious distinguishing feature from the post war “tourist” style pieces are the lack of a chromed blade. Most post war examples either have brass or a thin white metal rings to the hilt. They have been accurately compared to the post war lionshead tourist kukri, which are almost exclusively poor quality.

From the start, I wish it to be known that whilst I have no particular stake in the argument, either for or against. I am in favour of truth, and factual historical evidence, as opposed to false and altered statements, distorted photographs, and in some cases, outright lies. My aim is to further our knowledge through informed study.

Now, it must be remembered that I am only interested in what can be proven, with a reasonable amount of certainty, by either first hand historical accounts of the men involved, period photographs, and/or documents and paperwork from the period detailing such items (eg. Design plans, Stores chits, purchases orders, etc)

So, modern interviews are to be treated with a healthy amount of scepticism, not only because of the conduit used to bring us the information, which has proved itself “faulty” in the past, but also due to the natural passing of time bringing on a certain amount of distortion.

The crux of the argument for these ring gripped kukris having been issued seems to focus on two images, and some post war testimony of a gurkha officer, which was transcribed from a letter.

There is also, allegedly, some footage of a gurkha using a ring grip kukri during Operation Thursday, which was a Chindit operation. Despite several requests as to where this footage was seen, where it is kept, and how I can view/obtain it, information is yet to materialise. It is hard to pin down evidence for examination when details are not forthcoming, but I for one would love to see it, should it exist.

The person in question also has a tendency to name drop lots of authoritative people, and ascribe butchered quotes from them to support his point of view. This seems to be done in an effort to impress and bamboozle the reader. However, reading between the lines, and looking a little more closely the majority of such quotes have little to no bearing on the item under scrutiny.