Hand-Forged Kukri Set, Wide Bevel Blade

It is where the grind starts. On most kukris the blade is left thick through the middle and a relatively narrow bevel is ground in near the edge, so there is a distinct shoulder partway down the blade. On this one the bevel starts high, close to the spine, and sweeps in one long curve all the way to the edge. Two things follow. First, there is far less shoulder to wedge in the cut, so the blade keeps moving through wood instead of stopping and bouncing. Second, the steel immediately behind the edge is thinner, which means it bites deeper for the same swing. The costs are real and worth stating: a wide bevel takes considerably more time at the grinder, and because there is less metal behind the edge it will take a little more care around nails, stone and frozen wood than a thick narrow-bevelled village kukri will. It is the better cutter and the slightly more delicate one.

They are the karda and the chakmak, and they are not a pair of the same thing. The karda is the one with a point and a sharpened edge: a small utility knife for everything a 14.5 inch blade cannot do, which is most fine work. The chakmak is the one with the blunt squared tip, and it is not a cutting tool at all. It is a burnisher of hardened steel used like a butcher's steel, drawn along the kukri's edge to push a rolled edge back true without grinding any metal away. Traditionally its spine also struck a flint for fire, which is where the name comes from. Together the three tools cover heavy cutting, fine cutting and maintenance, which is why a kukri was carried as a set rather than as a knife. If you have only ever owned a bare kukri, the chakmak is the piece you will be surprised by.

Yes, with one caveat we have put in the honest note above rather than buried here. Horn is dense, hard-wearing, warm to look at and cool to hold, it does not swell when wet the way some woods do, and it takes a deep polish that improves rather than wears off. It is also the traditional material for a Nepali kukri hilt, worked by heating it until it softens and then pressing and cutting it to shape, which is a skill in itself. The caveat is that horn is organic and responds to humidity: taken somewhere very dry it can shrink slightly over months and occasionally show fine surface cracks. Oiling it two or three times a year prevents nearly all of that. Rosewood is the alternative, equally traditional, and it asks nothing of you.

Leather over a shaped wooden core, with pockets behind the blade for the karda and chakmak and a laced panel at the throat. The wood is what gives the scabbard its shape and its rigidity, and it is why a traditional kukri scabbard holds the blade securely without a strap while a flat leather sheath usually needs one. It is also the reason for the one care instruction that matters: do not store the kukri in it long term. A wooden core in a leather cover holds moisture against the steel for far longer than a flat sheath will, and a blade left in one through a humid season comes out marked. Store the kukri out of the scabbard, oiled, and use the scabbard for carrying.

It is close to the standard one, which is why we mention it. In Nepal a kukri is given at Dashain, presented on retirement from Gurkha service, and used as a mark of respect and celebration generally — it is the national blade and it carries meaning far beyond being a tool. A complete set with both companions and a proper scabbard reads as a considered gift in a way a bare blade in a plain sheath does not, and it arrives looking finished rather than looking like a component. We cut engraving by hand for names, dates and regimental numbers, in Latin or Devanagari script, on the blade or the scabbard fittings. If you are ordering for an occasion, tell us the date you need it for before you order rather than after, because custom work runs four to six weeks.

The cho, also called the kaudi, filed into the edge just ahead of the bolster. It arrests cracks running back out of the edge into the tang and keeps sap and fluid off the grip, and in Nepal it carries symbolic readings as well, variously a trident, a cow's hoof or a mark of the divine depending on who you ask. It is cut by hand on every kukri we make. If you are looking at a kukri anywhere with no cho, or with a perfectly identical stamped cho across every example in a listing, it did not come from a Nepali forge.

5160 high-carbon spring steel, the same alloy family as the vehicle leaf springs Nepali kamis have forged kukris from for generations. The edge is hardened differentially rather than the blade being through-hardened, so the cutting edge is hard while the spine and belly stay soft and springy and absorb the shock of chopping. It is not stainless, deliberately: the stainless grades that genuinely resist rust give up the toughness a chopping blade depends on. The karda and chakmak are made from the same steel, with the chakmak hardened right through since it never needs to take an edge.

This is the only one we list as a complete set, and it is the only one with a wide-bevel grind. Our Panawal Hilt kukri is 13.5 inches with riveted rosewood scales and ships with the karda but not the chakmak. Our Ringed Hilt kukri is 12 inches at Nepali service size with a turned one-piece hilt and no companions. Our Double-Edged kukri is the same 14.5 inch blade length as this one but is ground with a working edge on the back as well. If you want one kukri and want it to arrive complete, this is the one. If you want the strongest possible hilt for hard daily chopping, take the panawal. If you want something light enough to wear all day, take the twelve inch.

We would rather you did not, and the reason is not commercial. The three hilts on this set were cut from horn in the same workshop at the same time, so the colour, the figure and the polish match, and the two companions were made to sit in the pockets of this particular scabbard. Companions bought later from anywhere, including from us, will not match and may not seat properly. If you already own a bare kukri from us and want to add companions to it, tell us which kukri and we will make them to suit rather than sending stock ones. If you own a kukri from someone else, send a photograph and measurements of the scabbard pockets and we will tell you honestly whether it is worth doing.

The kukri and the karda arrive sharp and ready to work, finished on a stone by hand, with a working edge rather than a razor polish because a kukri meets wood, grit and bone. The chakmak is deliberately blunt and always will be; that is what it is for, and a sharpened chakmak would damage the edge it is meant to true. If you would prefer the kukri and karda shipped unsharpened — for display, for a gift, or because of the rules where you live — say so in the order comments and we will do it at no extra cost.

Hold the kukri edge upward with the spine resting on something solid, take the chakmak in your other hand, and draw it firmly along the edge at roughly the angle of the bevel, working from the cho toward the tip. Do a few passes on one side, then the same on the other. What you are doing is pushing steel that has rolled over back into line, not removing metal, so it takes seconds and can be done as often as you like without shortening the life of the blade. Do it after every session of real cutting and you will need an actual stone perhaps two or three times a year. Most people who own a kukri without a chakmak sharpen far more often than they need to and wear the blade down faster than the work does.

Our own kami, in our own workshop in Tokha-3 on the northern edge of Kathmandu. Kami is the Nepali word for smith, and most of ours came from families that have forged blades for generations. Everest Forge has operated since 2010, and we forge, grind, heat treat, cut and shape the horn, and make the scabbards in the same building. We are firmer about this on kukri pages than anywhere else on the site for two reasons: a great deal of what is sold internationally as a Nepali kukri has never been near Nepal, and unlike the European swords we make, this is not a tradition we researched. It is the one we come from.