Hi Vandoo,
I knew someone out there had a set. As for the rooster knives of baguazhang, so far as I know, they were first used by Liang Zhen Pu, the youngest disciple of Dong Hai Chuan, the system's founder.
One charming thing about the founder and first generation of bagua practitioners, almost all of them had unique weapons that were their signatures. Some were used by prior warriors, some were invented or adapted by these guys.
Bottom line for this thread is that the tiger double hooks are sort of the normal form of this weapon, and the more exotic variations tend to be the personal weapons of noted martial artists.
Fun pattern, isn't it?
F
For those who are interested, here is the list I have of first generation bagua artists and their personal weapons. The ones starred appear to be unique to bagua, at least originally.
Dong Hai Chuan (founder): deer horn knives*
Yin fu: emei/bagua needles (underwater weapon. 20 cm double-ended needles with a ring on a pivot, to slip onto your fingers)
Cheng Ting Hua: elbow knives (paired forearm length knives. Supposedly these are a soldier's weapon, but I've never seen them outside of bagua. They aren't hudiedao)
Li Cun Yi: Bagua dao (this is the double-sized willow-leaf dao that Cold Steel and other companies are selling. I think it was a weapon of the Imperial Court before bagua came along).
Zhang Zhao Dong: Bullwhip (shades of Indiana Jones--this art was never passed on to his students).
Liang Zhen Pu: Rooster knives* aka ji zhua yin ran rui
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