khukri
Accession Number NWHRM : 2830
Description
Small kukri. Hilt: wood, swells from shoulder to a raised hand stop and then swells to an oval pommel. 2 pairs of grooves around lower half of hilt. Blade widens from shoulder and approximately halfway down bends at 30 degrees finishing in a leaf shape. The edge is on the concave side.2 fullers at the back edge. There’s a small 12mm/0.5ins cup-shaped cut out at the shoulder. This is the cho (or kauri), the purpose of which is not agreed on. The weight of the blade is well towards the point. Byknives: miniature kukri shaped accessories with wooden handles: the shorter being a steel for sharpening the main knife, the longer a small skinning knife. Scabbard: light brown leather covered wood. The leather is joined at the front. A byknife case is fixed to the front with 2 leather thongs buttoned at the back.
Read Morekhukri
Kukri, Cookri, Kookeri: national knife and principal weapon of the Gurkhas of Nepal. Following war with Britain 1814-16, Nepal ceded 2 territories but remained independent and has supplied volunteers to Gurkha Regiments serving alongside the British, and since 1947, the Indian Armies. The kukri’s shape is said to derive from the blade of the kopis,(or khopesh), carried by the troops of Alexander the Great into India in the 4th century BC.
