Khukuri vs. tomato
Hi All,
Well, it's the Fourth of July (Happy 4th to all!) and I was cutting up some tomatoes for dinner. Ah hah, time to try cutting with a khukuri, and see how khukuris slice.
The answer: about as well as a table knife. Here were the factors that affected the test. 1. Neither khukuri was shaving sharp, as I'd been clearing brush with them and hadn't resharpened them yet. 2. The tomatoes were fairly firm romas, not squishy beefsteaks. After testing the khukuris and kitchen knives, I found that an ordinary table knife cut the roma tomato as well as the khukuris, at least in terms of the amount of force needed. Sharp kitchen knives of all sorts cut with much less force. The difference was gentle pressure from a single finger on the kitchen knives, vs. firm pressure from whole hand for the khukuris and the table knife.
Now, what can I generalize from this? Yes, it is possible to slice with a khukuri. On the other hand, it's not great, and it will work better if you have it really, really sharp (as with all slicing blades). So yes, it is more-or-less possible to slice someone's throat with a khukuri, as shown in the video. It's also possible to slice someone's throat with an axe, if it's sharp enough. I don't think that slicing is an ideal stroke for either khukuris or axes though, and I'm certainly not going to depend on it working, not that I ever intend to get into a khukuri fight with anyone. As we all know, there are better ways to use these blades.
Time to resharpen, I think.
Best,
F
|