Another Dha
 

Hi all, this is arrived today and IMHO is a beauty! What do you think? The handle seems to me simple bone and not ivory, but i'd like to ear from you. What is quite particular is the scabbard, isn't it? Any comment is welcome. Thanks

Flavio

That is a nice one! Interesting scabbard the hilt looks like bone.

Congrats

Lew

Wow. That one speaks to me. Very nice!

Steve

Thank you friends :D

I looked at it myself but had to suppress my urges :D : need funds for something closer to my main interests.
Very nice one, really very nice. I do not remember ever seeing this "basket-weave" cover for the scabbard. Is it peculiar to some specific locality/tradition/culture?
Dha-fiosos, raise your educated voices!

Waiting for the Dhafiosos guys, here are some other pictures of the blade. What to do you think could be the signs like finger prints?

Congratulations, Flavio. :) That's really an interesting and (in my opinion) beautiful sword.

As noted before, the woven rattan basketry covering the scabbard is unusual. The closest thing I have seen is "Montagnard" work. Some scabbards attributed to Northern Thailand and Laos are completely wrapped by rattan strips. This example is missing some rattan:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...ontagnard2.jpg

Additionally, I have seen swords/machetes attributed to the Vietnam highlands with scabbards completely constructed of rattan strips woven into a true cylindrical basket. Can't locate my photos of these at the moment.

The Blade design is quite pleasing with that wide central fuller and decorative work. The handle, with its swollen central bone section is nicely done as well.

At one time, I would have been quick to catagorize this as Burmese (Kachin). I think this might be Northern Thai, based on some things PUFF has shared with us recently.

PUFF? What do you say?

Puff may be able to tell you what guild uses these markings , I think Mark or Ian have one with similar markings. A nice sword

Hi John. Well, I was having a senior moment.

I thought I remembered PUFF making a comment about fullers running off the tip being a Thai element. He actually said the exact opposite. :o

I cannot count how often oldtimers disease hits me now day

I would say Kachin, based on the almost straight blade, concave tip, and the three-part grip with the fat middle. It looks like bone to me, too, but the way - too much grain to be ivory.

The basket weave on the scabbard is new to me, too. Very interesting.

About the "finger-prints" (excuse my Italion, folks, just trying to be clear) - vuoi dire le rosette lungo la spina, o proprio le macchie scure sulla lama? [translation for others - "do you mean the rosettes along the spine, or the dark stains on the blade?"] I think the rosettes are just decorative, though a similar mark is used in Thailand as a maker's mark, but only because I've never seen a maker's mark placed all along the blade like that. The stains on the blade are very likely real fingerprints, or rather oxidation caused by them.

All-in-all, its a really nice piece. Congratulazioni! :)

Grazie Mark :) Yes i mean the dark signs on the blade, not the decorations. Thank you very much for informations!

Non ce' di che! :) The oil of the finger-print, if left on the blade, will cause it to oxidize faster than the rest of the steel -voila', finger-print! I have a couple blades where you can almost see the worls of the finger-print. So, its a good idea to wipe down a blade with alcohol or other solvent, then re-oil, every once in a while, rather than just re-oil. I do that pretty much after every time I have to handle the blade itself.