Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - Ring grip Army issue Kukri, A correction for collectors

spiral · 18th July 2015, 07:23 PM

Ring grip Army issue Kukri, A correction for collectors.
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For a while now , over a decade in fact , there have been many posts on this & others forums regarding the incredibly prolific kukri found generally very cheaply at every car boot & junk shop in England generally known as the ring grip kukri labelling it as an official WW2 Indian Army issue kukri. Myself & many other kukri collectors have disagreed with this, due to lack of any factual evidence. Just unreliable hearsay & blurry pictures.

Heres an example of such a kukri....

[see below]

They have a a pair of brass or white metal rings adorning the handle & quite often have nickel plaited blades... {Rather similar in design to the infamous tourist/export lion head kukri & indeed the fake ww1 mk.2 kukris one see for sale so often.

Sadly on occasion, this viewpoint of them being WW2 Indian Army Issue kukri to Gurkhas, has had the effect of artificialy inflating there price for collectors {Mostly from the USA.} to artificial levels based on false premise that . its a genuine ww2 Gurkha issue kukri.

It is known & accepted in the kukri collecting community that these were being made & for sale in India {Dehradun to be precise.} in WW2, Many Officers & men bought them. It is of course traditional in the British army for Officers to buy there own uniforms & equipment.

Here is a provenanced example... Carried by.Captain Arthur Russell Stuart Holmes of the Royal Engineers during 1944.

[see below]

18th July 2015, 07:23 PM	#2
spiral Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 1,712	Ring grip Army issue Kukri, A correction for collectors. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For a while now , over a decade in fact , there have been many posts on this & others forums regarding the incredibly prolific kukri found generally very cheaply at every car boot & junk shop in England generally known as the ring grip kukri labelling it as an official WW2 Indian Army issue kukri. Myself & many other kukri collectors have disagreed with this, due to lack of any factual evidence. Just unreliable hearsay & blurry pictures. Heres an example of such a kukri.... [see below] They have a a pair of brass or white metal rings adorning the handle & quite often have nickel plaited blades... {Rather similar in design to the infamous tourist/export lion head kukri & indeed the fake ww1 mk.2 kukris one see for sale so often. Sadly on occasion, this viewpoint of them being WW2 Indian Army Issue kukri to Gurkhas, has had the effect of artificialy inflating there price for collectors {Mostly from the USA.} to artificial levels based on false premise that . its a genuine ww2 Gurkha issue kukri. It is known & accepted in the kukri collecting community that these were being made & for sale in India {Dehradun to be precise.} in WW2, Many Officers & men bought them. It is of course traditional in the British army for Officers to buy there own uniforms & equipment. Here is a provenanced example... Carried by.Captain Arthur Russell Stuart Holmes of the Royal Engineers during 1944. [see below] Attached Images Last edited by Ian; 23rd July 2015 at 02:51 PM.