Eunjangdo
 

Hello everyone, thought some of you may be interested in these two Korean, Ladies, silver knives, " Eunjangdo " I obtained these in Korea in the 1970`s. I am not sure whether or not they are now made for tourists or not but originally they were introduced by the Mongols in the 15th century and because in those days they were made of precious materials they were only used by the nobility and peasants were forbidden to own them. They became mostly used by women as a defence weapon to protect them against attack and to defend their honour, eventually becoming fashion items. The two I have steel blades with stainless hilts and scabbards and are in the order of 4 ins overall length.
Regards
Miguel

Stainless steel= Modern.
But a cute one.

Korean weapons are not well known. There is a chapter on them in the book about exhibition in Macao. Chapters on Thai/ Burmese swords an on Philippine swords were written by the members of this Forum. All classics.

Don't see many of these here. AFAIK, there's only been one previous thread on these: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15166 (which has photos of my 2, among others).

I knew they were modern when I purchased them I just wanted examples. I still have the wooden box with a label saying "Silver Knife " in English and Korean, it is very difficult to obtain old examples as they are family heirlooms.

I have read in some article, the name of which I cant bring to mind that one of the main reasons why their weapons are not so well known is that they were systematically collected and destroyed during the Colonial period and not many survived, in fact the Korean culture was , I believe, almost destroyed as well during this period.

Thanks for the Link Timo as I couldn't find anything, It is an interesting one and I think you are lucky to own your pieces as they look to have some age.
Miguel