People
Kailash Blades is run by Nepalese People,
for Nepalese People
Kailash Blades prioritises quality over just about anything else.
However, while you may engage with it as a knife manufacturer it primarily exists to benefit the lives of its team and their communities.
Kailash blades is structured and run unlike any other khukuri house in Nepal. While it does have manufacturing and management roles, it doesn't have a tiered system whatsoever. Kailash instead acts as a conduit between the craftsman and the international market, with the Blacksmiths taking on as much work as they wish.
This system self regulates and gives a huge amount of freedom. All of our Craftsmen can choose to retain ties with previous khukuri houses and can choose the amount to which they work for us and for others. If they become unhappy with their pay or conditions, then they can simply work less for us and give more time to other manufacturers.This gives them power over us to damage our supply line while giving them enormous stability of income, security and independence.
Simultaneously, we regulate quality and pay.
We ask for the highest quality of work in Nepal and pay the highest rates in the country by far as a result. If a Blacksmith is unhappy with the high level of quality expected, then our high pay rates are there to attract ambitious workers from other houses.
This equilibrium ensures that both parties benefit mutually and retain freedom in their own lives. The rate of pay alters from knife to knife, but the rule we run by is that they are always taking a higher portion of the profits from the knife than any other member of the company. In most khukuri houses the owner takes 60% of the money from the knife's sale as a baseline.
By removing the owner from the equation entirely, we've managed to run an alternative business model where every single member of our team is being paid significantly more than they were at previous houses.
While Kailash has recently established a central workshop in Kathmandu, it still gives the Blacksmiths the freedom to work in their villages and in their homes if they so choose.
Whereas usually a Blacksmith would have to travel to a major city centre or even Kathmandu to pursue this type of work, this allows them to stay with their families and communities, leading to a much more harmonious home life while also ensuring that the wages are spent in those communities, with flow on effects to the local economies.
Happy families and happy workers are what we aim for. If our workers are content, they'll produce better knives and work more efficiently. Higher quality knives mean happier customers.
Happier customers means more business, which means more happy Craftsmen under our business model.
The end result of all this is more good done across the entire of Nepal and potentially a shift in the way the Nepalese look at their own unique and valuable craft industry.
Kailash Blades prioritises quality over just about anything else.
However, while you may engage with it as a knife manufacturer it primarily exists to benefit the lives of its team and their communities.
Kailash blades is structured and run unlike any other khukuri house in Nepal. While it does have manufacturing and management roles, it doesn't have a tiered system whatsoever. Kailash instead acts as a conduit between the craftsman and the international market, with the Blacksmiths taking on as much work as they wish.
This system self regulates and gives a huge amount of freedom. All of our Craftsmen can choose to retain ties with previous khukuri houses and can choose the amount to which they work for us and for others. If they become unhappy with their pay or conditions, then they can simply work less for us and give more time to other manufacturers.This gives them power over us to damage our supply line while giving them enormous stability of income, security and independence.
Simultaneously, we regulate quality and pay. We ask for the highest quality of work in Nepal and pay the highest rates in the country by far as a result. If a Blacksmith is unhappy with the high level of quality expected, then our high pay rates are there to attract ambitious workers from other houses.
This equilibrium ensures that both parties benefit mutually and retain freedom in their own lives. The rate of pay alters from knife to knife, but the rule we run by is that they are always taking a higher portion of the profits from the knife than any other member of the company. In most khukuri houses the owner takes 60% of the money from the knife's sale as a baseline.
By removing the owner from the equation entirely, we've managed to run an alternative business model where every single member of our team is being paid significantly more than they were at previous houses.
While Kailash has recently established a central workshop in Kathmandu, it still gives the Blacksmiths the freedom to work in their villages and in their homes if they so choose.
Whereas usually a Blacksmith would have to travel to a major city centre or even Kathmandu to pursue this type of work, this allows them to stay with their families and communities, leading to a much more harmonious home life while also ensuring that the wages are spent in those communities, with flow on effects to the local economies.
Happy families and happy workers are what we aim for. If our workers are content, they'll produce better knives and work more efficiently. Higher quality knives mean happier customers. Happier customers means more business, which means more happy Craftsmen under our business model.
The end result of all this is more good done across the entire of Nepal and potentially a shift in the way the Nepalese look at their own unique and valuable craft industry.
Kailash Blades also affects real positive change in Nepal through it's connection with Buddhamarga Youth Club. Five percent of the sales on all our blades goes directly to this organisation, which works to build public infrastructure in Kathmandu that the government fails to provide. Along with fundamental things providing clean and safe drinking water, it also focuses on things that will improve the livelihoods of the children of Nepal, such as creating soccer grounds, sponsoring sporting tournaments and creating free to use community libraries with both nepali and english books suitable for all ages.
Buddhamarga Youth Club also directly intervenes with funding in times of crisis where the government and international charities fail to. During the Dashain holidays of 2015, the Kailash Blades team and a few members of BMYC travelled to a remote village which had yet to recover from the devastating earthquakes one year earlier. Their funding helped set up a new temporary schoolhouse while the previous one was undergoing repairs and they also hand delivered a load of essential supplies for the schoolchildren including soap, writing materials, Nepali and English Books as well as sports equipment.
It was a fantastic experience for everyone involved and sowed seeds for future projects in years to come.
To keep up with the work done by BMYC, follow them on Facebook.
