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Hunting knives / Kukri knives
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The Kukri is the weapon of the Gurkha. Gurkha's are best
known for their work with the British government. Over the
past century, the Gurkha's have fought for the Queen's
Guard in England, and have developed an amazing reputation
for themselves as some of the fiercest warriors in modern
times. With each battle fought, the kukri was used
proudly. They believe that the kukri is a special weapon,
which contained within itself, and has a spirit of its
own. Once a Gurkha unsheathes his kukri, he must draw
blood with it. When a Gurkha unsheathes his weapon in a
non-combative situation, he must then nick himself to
satisfy the 'blood thirst' of the blade.
This unique and special weapon, the kukri, is one of the
most misunderstood weapons of our time. At first glance,
one would think that this knife would be used as a
boomerang. That is the last thing for which this weapon
would ever be used. The unique 'L' shape of the kukri is a
structural marvel. Because of this bend in the blade, the
cleaving power of the kukri is magnified at least ten
times.
This has been shown time and again in combat, as recently
as in the Sino-Burmese-Indian theater of WW2 wherein the
Gurkha units regularly engaged in hand-to-hand combat with
the Japanese in the extraordinarily difficult conditions of
the jungles in that part of the world. Numerous episodes
of complete decapitation were achieved under the split-
second conditions of combat. Often, the Gurkhas would
crawl in one end of an enemy trench and commence running,
hacking heads and limbs as they went. In the close
quarters of the trench, the enemy found it hard to turn and
bring their rifles to bear. The ability of the kukri to
achieve its results with one swing made this kind of tactic
possible.
Fortunately, you don't have to do this to prove the power
of the kukri. Just taking a substantial piece of wood and
striking it with different knife types will allow you to
compare results. The devastating power of the kukri will
be readily apparent. The reason for this is in its forward
shaped blade. The apex of your swing with a normal
straight-blade knife ends at about the surface of the
target it is striking. In the case of the kukri, because
of its bent blade, it is already through the target before
it hits its apex! Envision a second hand on a clock
sweeping around past the 12 o'clock position. Now envision
the same second hand bent like an ?L? sweeping past that 12
o'clock position. Before the 'base' of the second hand
reaches the top of that position, the top half of that
second hand is already far past and through the target.
Each time you swing a weapon, you have an apex point and
the deceleration of that swing. You must decelerate the
weapon in order to keep it from striking you, or in some
cases, changing direction. The same is true with the
kukri. With this unique bend, however, it allows you to
crash through your target with amazing force before having
to begin your deceleration. Combined with the substantial
weight of the weapon and the pulling power that can be
applied to the motion, the results are extraordinary. This
sets the kukri apart from other weapons out there. It
makes the 'kukri' a cut above the rest. 
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