The Fighting Kukri: Illustrated Lessons on the Gurkha Combat Knife

by Dwight C. McLemore

The kukri is one of the oldest combat/utility knives in existence today. Recognized as the national weapon of Nepal, the kukri has been associated with the British Army's fearsome Gurkha brigades since their creation. The unique downward slope of the blade gives the kukri its distinctive look and renowned ability to effect powerful, accurate cuts. In this latest addition to his "Fighting Weapons" series, Dwight McLemore explores the full range of kukri training and deployment. He presents a sprinkling of history with informed discussions of fighting approaches and numerous training exercises on cutting, thrusting, blocking, and the associated movement of a kukri fight. By mixing modern and historical concepts and illustrating the text with hundreds of his highly acclaimed instructional drawings, McLemore has created the first and perhaps ultimate training guide to this unique weapon. The Fighting Kukri is a must for martial artists, blade enthusiasts, historical reenactors, fight directors of stage and screen, and men and women of the armed forces.

302 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2012

Reviews

[Jasprit Sing]

The book seems to be good want to read it

[Timothy Nichols · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never read a McLemore book before, but I've owned a kukri since I was a kid (and used it regularly -- great field knife!), so this seemed a good place to start. It's a truism that you can't learn martial arts from a book --- you learn from practice. But a book can inform your practice, and in terms of ability to do so, this is one of the best martial arts books I've ever read. The progression of material made sense, the illustrations were plentiful, on point, and from useful angles, and the text was invariably brief and clear. McLemore clearly knows his business -- he could have a good career designing instructional manuals for other people's material if he felt like it. An absolute joy to read, and if I ever write a martial arts book, I'll be modeling it after this one.
The material itself...well, McLemore works off a fundamentally different movement base than I do, so while there's a couple of tricks I might steal, that's about it for me. But there's nothing wrong with the material; it's just not compatible with my practice.
I feel a need to also mention McLemore's use of and interaction with other people's material. He gives credit where due and is uniformly respectful, while at the same time being careful to stand behind what he presents as *his* interpretation and application. He strikes a wonderful balance, and I wish more authors followed his example.
One chapter is based (in part) on three Serak jurus, and since this is something I have a more than passing acquaintance with, I want to speak to it. I don't see much resemblance to Serak as I understand it. I don't mean this at all as a criticism of McLemore -- he interacted with the material and made it his own, and he is clear that this is what he has done. Nothing wrong with that. But if you thought you were getting a quick window into what Serak is like...not from this. Maybe get your hands on Stevan Plinck's knife compilation DVD.

[Miroku Nemeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the author states repeatedly, the practical knowledge that is in this book can only be accessed through real training. The drawings, diagrams, descriptions, etc. are good, but, like most books on martial arts techniques, you really can only benefit from them to the point of implementation if you train hard in those techniques and make them your own. For myself, I have trained over seven years in Doce Pares Eskrima, as well as training in many other martial arts since I was 12, so I was able to gain great benefit from this book, and I was able to appreciate the years of training and research that the author undertook to be able to write on this in such a fashion. As I read it, I was able to feel the moves as I have used them—and even though none of the moves were attributed to Eskrima, most of them were in our system. Perhaps the numerado was different, but we had the strikes. It was a very useful read for the martial artist interested in blade combat, and was very comprehensive. Mr. MacLemore has done all of us a service in this work, truly.