South asian Chinese ? Keren? knife
 

Hello dear members,

I wanted to show you this long knife,
sold as a keren tribe hunting knife,

I like it,
it has really thick blade and sharp edge.

It seems pretty old.

The blade looks like keren knife-daggers but I haven't found one like this one ( handle and scabbard ).

for the handle, it's made of dear antler and it's written bone handle so I wonder about the origin...

Maybe Chinese or Thaï ?

Maybe just a working chop knife ?

What do you think ?

Kind regards

I would suggest Birma or Thailand. The shape of the blade and scabbard are quite common in those regions. The stag hilt is also seen on some ''village quality'' knifes from this region, but it's mostly ivory.
I would date it around the first quarter of the 19th century, looking at the quality of the blade and scabbard.

All the best,
Peter

Interesting knife. As already noted, it is a mainland SE Asian knife common in blade shape to a number of ethnic groups in the area. It could be from the Karen. The stag hilt on this one is highly atypical and not likely to be original. This knife was most likely brought back by a US soldier during the Vietnam War, or acquired by another Westerner, who re-hilted the knife to his taste.

The pictures are too dark to get a clear idea of age.

Ian

Hello,

Thanks a lot Peter and Ian for your message !

Interesting comment about the hilt,
I found the knife was not really well balanced, the hilt is really nice but to long.
It still fits well in the right hand...

a south asian bowie knife ;) :)

I post other pictures of blade and scabbard ( a good but not a laminated blade I think )

Kind regards

Knives with a handle made of the antler of a deer muntjak are quite often found among the shamans of the mountain peoples of Vietnam, Laos, Thailand. These are ritual objects with magical powers.

The handle shown by Ren Ren is a typical small deer hilt found on some "priest knives" and also some Cambodian knives. However, the local species is a small deer, and the antlers are short and thin. The substantial "crown stag" hilt on the original post is too large for local deer in SE Asia, which is why I think this one has been re-hilted elsewhere. As noted, the large heavy hilt on the original post has distorted the balance of the knife, and its size suggests it was made for a larger hand than found in native populations.

Quite right, Ian! I used this photo as an example of the difference between the species of deer antlers.