How sharp is the Gurkha knife compared to other bladed weapons, like the Katana?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “gurkha knife“
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How sharp is the Gurkha knife compared to other bladed weapons, like the Katana?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “gurkha knife“
About Alaia
It depends on the individual blade and often on the maker/manufacturer.
If you are asking about what you can buy rather than a question on historical blades, katana will generally be sharper.
The most common kukri makers make them not only dull, but very dull. Some, like Windlass Steelcrafts, make them so dull they don’t even have an edge. Mine was so dull the “edge” was thicker than the spine of my Swiss Army Knife.
Of course there are good quality kukri makers such as Himalayan Imports and Kukri House, and companies that make modern kukri (purists don’t consider them actual kukri) such as Cold Steel, Ontario, Columbia River, etc. make them sharp as other knives.
The katana and kukri have very different functions and it is pointless to compare them.
Better blades to compare to the kukri are the bolo, parang, and golok which serve similar functions.
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Any bladed weapon is as sharp as you choose to sharpen it. There is nothing that makes any weapon, Katana included, inherently sharp.
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As sharp as the owner cares to sharpen it. Any piece of half-way decent steel can be rendered to “razor” sharpness with a bit of skill and elbow grease.
The “profile” of the blade determines it’s cutting ability. A thick, wedge-shaped blade is better for “chopping”. A thin, fully-tapered blade is better for cutting. Think high-quality chef’s knife as opposed to a hatchet.
The Gurkha “kukri” is primarily a chopper… A thick-backed knife that is not only weapon, but tool. They are traditionally made of locally-sourced steels like old auto leaf springs. (Pretty good steel, actually)
There’s a limit to how sharp you can make a steel edge. “About as sharp as a razor” is a good description. A polished razor edge is about as good as it gets with steel. If you examine such an edge under a microscope, it looks pretty much like a tree saw. Not smooth at all; hundreds of little jagged points all facing the same way.
So… A Kukri can be made just as sharp as any other steel blade, but the cross-section of these knives is quite thick, and as a result they would not be ideal for say…. Filleting a fish or cutting sushi.
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The Gurkha knife, or kukri isn’t just a weapon. It was also a tool. It served the purpose of a machete, a hatchet, and a fighting knife. As it was intended for chopping, it would likely be kept with a duller edge than other bladed weapons, so it wouldn’t suffer from edge damage. Longswords and katanas were never used to chop wood, and so they could be given sharper, but less durable edge geometry.
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Sharpness really depends on the wielder, not the kind of weapon. A longsword is capable of being as sharp or sharper than a katana, and vice versa. The kukri really emphasizes chopping power, so sharpness is not really that important, though I’m sure the Gurkhas wielding them keep/kept them as sharp as possible.
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