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<\/p>\nToday’s “hot gear” is, along with the Bowie knife and the K-Bar, perhaps the most legendary piece of cutlery in the business – the Khukri.<\/p>\n
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The Khukri is a strange knife, to western hands; oddly-balanced, weirdly-shaped, more of a machete than a knife. \u00a0It looks, and to western sensibilities, feels odd.<\/p>\n
So clearly, the legend is less in the hardware than in the software.<\/p>\n
The Khukri is the traditional blade of the “Gurkhas” – members of tribe from rural Nepal that, in 1815, not only stymied a British\/Indian invasion, thus securing Nepalese independence, but so impressed the would-be conquerors that it led to an agreement to allow the Brits to recruit tribe members into the British Army. \u00a0Being selected into a Gurkha regiment is not only one of the greater honors in the tribe – it’s also the only career path that doesn’t involve farming and raising yaks.<\/p>\n
Given a choice between living more or less the same way they did a thousand years ago, or jetting into the 21st century (or 19th, for that matter), getting into the Army is an incredibly competitive process. \u00a0And it shows; the Gurkhas have been an elite force in the British Army for the 200 years since. \u00a0 Sometimes they step beyond “elite” to just plain legendary<\/a>.<\/p>\n But here – learn some more:<\/p>\n