[TigersEye]

Mine is 1/4" thick with a 12" blade. I would use it instead of any hatchet for limbing and splitting all but the biggest and knottiest firewood. I was watching a documentary type show about the Himalayas and this old herder pulled a large leg of goat or sheep off of an open fire and with his kukri started effortlessly slicing off thin slices of meat. It does the job of many tools better than the tools dedicated to the job.

The Cold Steel and Kabar kukris look good and the rubberized handles would be nice until they wore out. However I think their tempered steel high carbon blades would be more brittle than an Indian or Nepali-made kukri. I'm sure they are more now but mine was $20 in the mid '90s. Hard to beat that value.

[Dead Corpse]

Agreed on all points.

The spring steel some of the Nepalese blades are forged from are ideal for a hard use blade. Springy, but the “packing”/work hardening of the forging process tempers into a very versatile blade that can hold an equally surprising sharp edge.

Try that with a ground 440C blade... Hehhe...