The Fighting Kukri: Illustrated Lessons on the Gurkha Combat Knife Paperback – January 1, 2012

The Gurkha Battleblade!Dwight McLemore's "The Fighting Kukri: Illustrated Lessons on the Gurkha Combat Knife" is another fine addition to authors series of blade fighting books. In this book Dwight covers the employment of the kukri, which is a curved Nepalese knife, similar and more akin to the machete, used as both a tool and as a weapon. He lays out in the historical portion of the book that the cutting edge is inwardly curved in shape and is the icon of Nepal. It was, and in many cases still is, the basic and traditional utility knife of the Nepalese people. Very effective when used as a weapon, it is a symbolic weapon of the Nepalese Army, and of all Gurkha regiments throughout the world, signifying the courage and valor of the bearer in the battlefield.The author also discuss that the blade's distinctive forward drop is intended to act as a weight on the end of the blade and make the kukri fall on the target faster and with more power. Although a popular legend states that a Gurkha never sheathes his blade without first drawing blood, the kukri is most commonly employed as a multi-use utility tool rather like a machete. The kukri is effective as both a chopping and a slashing weapon. In combat, it is basically used in two different styles: stabbing with the point, slashing or chopping with the edge. Because the blade bends towards the opponent, the user need not angle the wrist, which makes the kukri more comfortable as a stabbing weapon than other straight-bladed knives. Its heavy blade enables the user to inflict deep wounds and to cut through muscle and bone. While most famed from use in the military, the kukri is most commonly used as a multipurpose tool, and is a very common agricultural and household implement in Nepal. Its use has varied from building, clearing, chopping firewood, and digging to cutting meat and vegetables, skinning animals, and opening tins.Overall, like the rest of the authors work this book is similarly formatted. The book is nicely structured and is quite easy to understand. Additionally the author's illustrations are clear and easy to interpret for training. If you are interested in a well-made modern interpretation of the Kukri, I would look at purchasing the " Ontario 6420 OKC Kukri Knife " which is a superb rendition.I highly recommend this book to students of blade work, martial artist and military personnel.

My Fighting Kukri book, arrived today. Quickly looking over the material, my personal opinion is that this book is awesome. I have several books from D.C. McLemore and I'm happy with them all. While some would argue that the techniques in this material are not from a Gurkha, I would say this book gives insight into how to use this blade. Thus this offering of kukri fighting techniques is "well done" for my applications. Recommendation to those who would still have questions, seek training from a qualified instructor. I have several years of martial arts training and am a combat veteran. If you don't have access to proper instruction or are a novice with questions leave it, this is a combat skill and dangerous. All in all, again awesome book.

For Christmas, I bought one of my martial arts instructors this book. I also purchased a Kukri trainer from Keene Edge for him. Our group has been focused on training Indonesian knife versus knife fighting and defense for the past few months. My intent was to provide some direction (through the book) for our instructor and a training blade. The Kukri trainer is very different from the training blades we normally use (different balance), so hopefully we'll learn how to handle them.My instructor has been looking into the Kukri and currently is trying to find more information on Bondo, which apparently is one art that uses the Kukri.

A very detailed book. If you know the Khukuri and its history, this book will show you that a Khukuri is not only for chopping wood. This book will show you the reason why Ghurkas have this knife and can use it as a weapon. A Khukuri is very impressive and if you don't know what you can do it, it will be just an impressive knife.I have several Nepalese Khukuris and this book justifies my purchases.

I really enjoyed this work. It is always challenging when writing books about physical skills but this author does it very well. I also have and enjoy his book on staff fighting. This work makes it fairly simple to learn some basic techniques in Kurkuri and big knife fighting. The author does a good job with descriptions and explanations. I think to make any real value a person must practice with a partner and have a suitable weapon or tonto to practice with. This is not a history book on the blade even though it touches on the subject and would not be a good choice for those just interested in its interesting and varied history. This work is primarily for practitioners in self defense arts and I also don't think this is a good beginner level work. Some prior knowledge in fighting arts would be of great benefit when assimilating this book. I did not give it a full 5 because I thought the formatting and illustrations could have been better. I did not think the book had a great flow with its content and the illustrations were a little too basic and rough. It would have been better to have more fleshed out drawings or photographs, even though that would increase the price of the book.Thanks, Good Luck and Happy Reading.

This is a great book to learn from if you are truly interested in implementing the basics of the Kukri into your training. It is not full of traditional things. The author makes it clear the information is based on his years of experience. I recommend this book.

As a long time enthusiast on the Ghurkas, I had always wondered just what kind of fighting style they might use with their famed weapon, the Khukri. This book satisfies that question and then some. I highly recommend this book to Ghurka or Khukri students or even anyone who has a thing for exotic weapons.

it's not bad... gives some good, basic techniques for using a kukri. It's as good as all of Mr. McLemores other books... honestly you'd be better off ordering a video and getting a practice blade (mine is poly) and a practice dummy (I use the heavy bag at the local gym) and going to town.

WORST.

Highly detailed and informative applied theory of kukri applications in melee combat, similar to my fencing manuals, particularly those pertaining to Verdadera Destreza. The author is clearly knowledgable of fencing.

Instructions can be vert brutal but the fact of the matter is the knife was made for more than farm chores. Well illustrated and no holds barred instructions

contenu intérressantattend la version française

Ein Spitzenbuch ueber die Kampftaktiken mit dem nepalesischen Kukri. Fazit: eine sehr gefaehrliche Waffe in der Hand eines geuebten Kukri-Kaempfers. Der korrekte Name des Haumessers ist uebrigens Kukuri.