Description
At Kailash Blades we aim to have our traditional knives be as faithful to historic examples as possible. There’s a few reasons for this, which we outline HERE in our traditional info. As a result of this, our knives often have slimmer spines than our competitors, broader blades and steeper primary grinds. This makes them a bit more expensive but it also gives them less cutting resistance and makes them a lot more agile in hand. There is one knife however that we couldn’t bring ourselves to only produce the traditional version of, the British Service Issue.
Now this knife suffers from all the same issues that a lot of tourist khukuris do for exactly the same reasons, however in the case of the service no. 1 we can get around it for a few reasons.
1: It is historically accurate to the present. This exact style of knife is in use by current ghurkas and armed forces worldwide.
2: In this specific knife, the differences between the original knife and the knife being produced are so intense that it gains an entirely new feel and style of use.
3:It works.
The Modern Service Issue is much shorter and stouter than the more traditional historical versions, coming in at a relatively stubby 10.5″ long with almost a full 10mm thick spine. Furthermore both the primary and secondary grinds are a lot thicker and while this may reduce the ability of the knife to handle brush clearing or chop deeply, it also gives a lot of heft and durability to a knife of such relatively short length.
With a traditional water quench this knife was seriously tough, but with Kailash’s improved heat treat process, this blade is more or less indestructible.
Take that kind of blade and marry it with a lightweight, correctly tapered and annealed rat tail tang and what you’ve got is a knife that has the feel in hand of a hammer and a lot of the same chopping characteristics. The grind might be too thick to make it through a small branch in one go cleanly, but chances are that it’ll just power on through and snap the branch off lower down. Then maybe keep on travelling and take a big chunk out of a brick under the scrub. The blade is built sturdily enough to shrug off that kind of mistake with ease.
We offer this blade in a few different lengths all focused on being rugged, hefty blades with a traditional rat tail tang.
The 9″ model is a bit leaner for better performance slicing and handling finer work around camp- a great option for those coming over from western fixed blades. The 12″ blade packs a bit more power and leverage into the package for those looking to focus more on chopping capability.
The 14″ goes thinner and longer to open up a bit more speed and brush clearing capability, while still maintaining the same power and ruggedness as the rest of the blades.
Blade Lengths and Weights are as follows:
9″: 8mm thick spine at bolster, 400g
10.5″: 9mm spine at bolster, 525g
12″: 9mm spine at bolster, 625g
14″: 8mm spine at bolster, 700g
On this blade we offer a military dap as an option. This features a laceup frog as well as twin adjustable vertical loops. These can be fully undone to remove the blade from the sheath without undoing your belt. This is a more complex sheath used in some military/police settings but lacks the capacity for horizontal carry that all our other sheaths have. For general use we recommend our standard dap.
Right now Ghurkas are actively operating with this very knife as their standard issue to stand up to anything service can throw at them. They open cans, chop through cables, pry open crates and of course use it as a sidearm. They are relying on this knife to do its job and safeguard the lives of the the user and all those around them they are sworn to protect. If that’s the kind of field tested dependability you need from your knife, then this might be just the ticket.
Before Purchase, please read through our Options Info page as well as Warranty and Factory Seconds for information on all the different options and grind types we offer and how they affect the level of warranty you’ll receive.