Kora/khuda/khunda

[spiral]

Originally Posted by Stan S.

A very nice, plain yet attractive variant of a good fighting kora with a traditional nepalese style hilt!.

Ive only handled 10 or so kora, only ever owned 3, but have seen another few dozen or so in Nepal. I think the the hilts did have a rather different Gestalt, actualy so did the blades. The shape of the domed cap & tang end without finial looks very strange & not realy traditional? But perhaps my memmory is faulty, I havent hunted through all my old photos.

And Of course replicas are still made in Nepal to day for western importers, tourists & indeed sometimes the locals.

spiral

[Timo Nieminen]

The blade is forged - the fuller is shallow and the edge of the fuller isn't sharp. The disks are cut from sheet metal, and I think the grip is the same sheet metal rolled into a slightly conical tube. The domed cap looks like it might be a different steel.

The thickness of the spine is about 4mm at 2", 7mm at 6"-7", and 6mm from 12"-18". Positions along blade in inches as per photo. I doubt that it's differentially hardened, since the point is a little bent. Are "real" ones usually differentially hardened?

800g.

I don't have any reason to think it's older than perhaps mid-late 20th century. Could be late 20th.

[spiral]

Hi Timo, well distal taper is always good in a blade, Helps stop it snapping under duress, after all.

They should be differntialy hardend if for use but the very tips are likely to be left soft judging from kukri, {Ive never etched a kora/khonra etc.}

if you can lightly etch it you will see whether the man who made it , made for it to be potentialy used or purely a wallhanger.Post ww2 does seem likely, I agree.


Who it was made for, as with many ethnographic weapons from that area we will probably never know. Beheading buffalo is there main job today if made for locals.


Spiral

[Timo Nieminen]

Here is another. A bit shabby, with a big bend in the blade at about 20", about 10-15 degrees. Perhaps I can straighten it, if I feel the need.

My first impression was that it would be a bit of a pig to try to fight with, a rather heavy and unwieldy brute ("only" 1.36kg, but still a pig). Maybe OK for dealing with unmoving sacrifical targets.

[Berkley]

I believe the blade is not original to the hilt. The blade is considerably wider than the bolster, and its design seems ungainly compared to the workmanship of the hilt. Your observations about the weight reinforce the visual evidence.
For comparison, a similar hilt with appropriately sized blade, total weight .83 kg.: