Y'all can take this any way you want to, but Jerry is serious about the test team idea, as is Dan. As Jerry explained to me last night, he has not made kukris before. Making a kukri has been a challenge because he has to use so much wide stock just to get that shape using stock removal. Traditional kukris are forged and beaten into shape by hand. It takes a lot of INFI stock to make just one Busse kukri. And INFI is not cheap. So the challenge is to get the performance and proper balance of of a hand forged kukri in production knife. Jerry honestly wants feedback to tweak the final design some, if necessary. When I asked Dan about a Scrap Yard kukri, the problem of stock width came up. It would cost a lot of money to grind away half the stock to make a kukri, and Dan is committed to high performance at a reasonable cost. Maybe a bolo would be a better idea. And the new bowie has some new features like integral quillion, tapered radiused tang and such. He wants to know how they perform and how they are liked so he can make any necessary changes in the final production model. The knife feels fantastic in the hand, much lighter and faster than you might expect. The folks at Busse, Swamp Rat, and Scrap Yard care about their customers and are just trying a new approach to getting the knives as perfect as possible before going into full production. I think we need to help them out and give this test team idea a chance. And I was only kidding about the test team forum. It doesn't exist. Even if it did, I couldn't talk about it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
I can understand Jerry wanting to have feedback on the Khukri because other manufacturer's have had problems with grinding Khukri's from stock. Extreme Ratio certainly have had a few...
http://www.britishblades.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1111600The design is also one whereby a lot of stress is passed down the blade to the narrowest part of the knife near the hilt....perhaps because of this the knife has not been done with a choil...Jerry may have discovered when doing prototypes that putting a choil on the blade which reduced the depth of the blade considerably by the hilt caused a weakness in that area? I am only surmising this because his initial drawings did include a choil...but the Test Team version does not.
I believe his version though with a full tang may also be an area where feedback on the handle and grip design is something he also wants because the traditional comfort of a smooth wrap around handle on a khukri is not present in his design and after extended chopping he may want feedback as to whether fuller smooth linen micarta grips might be suggested?
Personally I think that smooth grips would be potentially my first thought although the option of a wider flared front and rear to the grip like a khukri might help with minimising the potential for losing grip on the knife if chopping without a lanyard.
His design however with a full tang I suspect will be the toughest design option to ever be done....although things like this won't be known until the knife is well tested. Hence the "test team" idea...although I also think this is a pretty good way to encourage sales as well...which cannot hurt.... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />
