Had the privilege of spending a fortnight in Nepal in 1971. The medals were all stamped with the soldier's name & unit. It is rather sad when these soldier's found it necessary to sell their medals to survive.
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Had the privilege of spending a fortnight in Nepal in 1971. The medals were all stamped with the soldier's name & unit. It is rather sad when these soldier's found it necessary to sell their medals to survive.
I'm sure that the badge on the scabbard and the hat are just touristy things and that badge/quality/obliterated/obscure number doesn't ring any bells. Generally speaking, the Gurkhas that transferred to the Indian Army initially kept their original badges. But after India became a republic in ?, the Crown was simply replaced by the Ashoka (spelling?). The Indian REME have the same badge as ours with an Ashoka instead of a crown.
Incidentally, you could easily 'unbuckle' the brim of the hat by doing what the other users of slouch hats do. Our Gurkhas used to wear them with the rim/brim down.
Thanks for the advice. I do prefer to leave the items as they were when purchased in Bhaktapur many years ago.
Two of the buttons are copper, instead of brass, and are spelled "Nepaul". I am thinking that they are from WW1.
I was in Nepal 2 years ago. I bought a knife from a soldier (that was standing guard at a temple) but when I looked at it closely it did not seem to be of military quality. I believe it was from one of the many shops that sell thousands of Gurkha knives to tourist. He had the scabbard spit shined and polished the blade and handle and probably used it for inspections. I am still glad I bought it because it had belonged to a soldier. In Kathmandu every house and building had a shop under it that sells knives and everything else that had to do with Nepal. It was a great trip by the way. really different culture and extremely crowded part of the world.
Massive tourist trade of "military" items in Nepal. The Kukri is non-issue.
That all makes perfect sense and answers a simple question that keep rearing it's head here. Everyone that buys a knife swears it's an original combat knife. Most of them are just tourist trade.
I've been trying to get a British issue Kukri for about a year now. I've not been very diligent about it but every once and a while one comes up for auction. Seems like everyone knows what they are however and I just can't push that $300 button to get one. There are Nepalese Kukri's and IMA got a tone of them a while back and they are about the only ones that have legit ones for sale. Great care has to be taken with the ebay auctions. Most are fake as fake can be. By fake I mean not military. Many are "real" kukri's but just not military. The things are mostly hand made out of spring steel so there isn't exactly a standard pattern that is identical to others. Military ones should have a serial number at minimum, often in script. British issue will have the broad arrow. The Indian military also issued them and this is even more of a grey area. Indian Kukri's in general aren't as sought after as either the British or Nepalese ones.
What makes it worse is the tourist trade went all the way back to WWII so ones that grand dad brought back are probably fakes also.
Mine has a rack number... I think. I made the scabbard.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aragorn243
Hopefully, I'm not going to be told that this is a tourist example.
Is the number a date, Dec. 1914, rather than a serial number?
That looks like the real deal to me has a British broad arrow on it. Seems logical that could be the date.
Looks like the ones claimed to be "British issue"...broad arrow...
I looked at that on my phone while driving which I shouldn't have been doing. It is an early one, not one of the specially contracted British issue, they were made WWII time frame. I still believe it to be legit, Nepalese made, not British made. I posted mine on here earlier, it is also Nepalese made, probably from th late 1800's.
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I've got this one as well that the vendor said was WW2 but I didn't think so when I purchased it and I still don't.
Flying10uk,
That is an incredible khukri (12-14). Wish that it could tell it's story.
That one is probably legit also but like you said, no way to date it. It's not British but Nepalese. With the metal tip it probably is much later than the other ones.
See, that's way closer to the one I've had since '76.Quote:
Originally Posted by Flying10uk
I wonder if that's a date combined with an initial of the person who made it, Jim, rather than a rack number? If true, the one that I have pictured in post 14 would be 1964 and yours 1965.
Maybe...no one's ever been able to explain it. Another was found close by later and it was marked two numbers off this one. I couldn't convince the young troop to part with it but today he swears I ordered him to give it to me. That means he has no idea where it went. That's sad...because he's a drunk now...so it's gone.
Lets hope that it's in the safe hands of a collector, somewhere.Quote:
Originally Posted by browningautorifle
It would have been nice to have E65 and E67 together though...sad.
Reading this thread brought back some memories of a Gurkha officer that attended the US Army Pathfinder Course in 1978. He was very quiet and highly intelligent and every inch a professional soldier. At the graduation ceremony he requested that his section instructors stand in line in front of the assembled graduates, instructors and guests. He then saluted each instructor and presented us with a miniature Khukri.
The knife has no markings and is just a representation of the actual knife but we still felt honored by the presentation.
Attachment 85746Attachment 85747
BEAR (BDY)
I was at an antique place last weekend and the guy in charge of the store was a pretty good guy. He didn't mess around, it if was fake, he joked about it rather sarcastically. There were a few military "fake" knives in their case and he made no bones about any of them which considering he should be trying to sell them (they weren't his, antique places around here have multiple dealers and they take turns running the place).
Anyway, I don't even know how we got there but Gurkas got mentioned in the conversation and this old fellow tells me he was a medical officer for a Gurka group. Told me they were like little kids, always getting into things and making mischief. I believe he had a good time serving with them. He wasn't old enough for WWII or Korea for that matter, I'd guess early 70's at most.
Strange, we always found them to be gentlemanly and quiet, polite and they wouldn't get drunk when off duty. They could have been under the threat of death too from higher, but still...Quote:
Originally Posted by Aragorn243
Might be a difference in how they act around outsiders and how they act when on their own in their own group. I don't know. I suppose I should have asked him some more questions but he had other customers. He wasn't talking badly about them. I got the impression he really enjoyed being with them.
Sort of what I mean, under threat...Quote:
Originally Posted by Aragorn243