Quote:
Originally Posted by Gsingh
Hi all
Over the years I have purchased many kukri knives and most of them had retained the 2 smaller knives which are concealed in the scabbard. Does anyone know what these were used for? Or what the purpose would be?
Thanks
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The small sharp knife is just that. A small knife
The other tool is a a fire steel to strike a tinder.. the Mongolian word is chagmag or chakmak for the complete tinder pouch and striker typically hung from the belt. In Nepal these Mongolian tinder pouches probably arrived via trade with Tibet as in Tibet the item bares the Mongolian name also.
At some point Nepalis began putting tinder pouches in the back of the sheath and began also calling the hard little striker a chakmak .
The Nepalis also use the striker to sharpen the kukri blade kukris generally are not very hard and with a correctly made chakmak you can shave metal of the blade and sharpen it like a butchers steel.
I don't know what the original Nepali name is for the chakmak.. but it has assumed the Mongol name over time. I also can not say when the Nepalis began using the chakmak as a sharpener ..
There only other culture using sharpening steels natively aside from Europeans is Yakuts who on some knife sheaths have an iron blade that can be used to like a butchers steel and can also strike a flint. It may well be Mongol and Turkic nomads also used their chakmak strikers on the pouch to hone a knife and Nepalis learnt it . Or the Nepalis invented this method natively