My Heirloom - Modern Dha

[wilked aka Khun Deng]

Well y'all have been patient and heard me talking about the matched set I was having made in Thailand for years. The frustration is over and they are safely back in the States.
First series is the making.
1. The design
2. And of course drinking beer with the apprentices (forge in the rear)
3. They painted the blade with some pink chalky stuff and then free-handed the design.
4. Then used dies of varying shapes to stamp in the design
5. The silver sheeting was laid on a pan of pitch and the design hammered in from the back then wrapped around the pommel to measure and soldered (little mix up in the design - these pieces weren't used)
6. After six months this is where it stood

[wilked aka Khun Deng]

For the sake of brevity we'll skip the next two years of frustration. Let's just say it's better to be around to answer questions and do your own quality control than hope a labeled design will be executed correctly. Special thanks need to go out to Serge who came along about this time and really got this project back on track as well instilling some needed business ethics. Thanks Brother!

Let's not dwell but warp forward to the finished product.

The outside first.
Huge fan of ivory carving always have been

The three headed elephant god Erawan is the patron of the Thai airborne troops (based in Lop Buri -my wife's home town) with whom I've worked for years and is also the badge for their Jump Wings (the first foreign wings I ever received) thus that design choice.

The Monkey God Hanuman was the protector in the Ramayana and Lop Buri is known for it's monkeys. As many of you know I'm a soldier that image fit perfectly.

The last image I wanted to incorporate was one that said Thailand, a country I dearly love. I did some research on Thai design features but the one image that I kept coming back to was one that you see everywhere in Thailand - the sweeping intricate roof eaves of every temple terminating in the bird with the recurved beak.

Twisted wrapped silver wire for grip, plated silver wire on the scabbard complete ensemble (should've been a fashion announcer)

It's a rather large two handed presentation sword, however I did have an extended tang with bolt built in cause I wanted it to be a usable weapon balance is a little point heavy - it's a chopper!

[wilked aka Khun Deng]

This really is a hefty blade and yes they did actually chop a nail in half with this particular blade before it was hafted to prove it. The blade is 27 1/8" long, 5/16" thick at the spine and 1 5/8" at the belly swell (which was deeper but had to be trimmed so as not to stick in the scabbard)

The design features on this are all the work of the apprentice, I only chose the copper, brass, and silver spine inserts and the names (Thai on one side English on the other). For stability and to take up some of the shock to the ivory at the hilt he melted down a bunch of old US quarters he had to make a silver disk insert.

As I said this is one of a pair the other is on the mainland with my brother holding it to be gifted to my son upon some significant event (like he gets married). Mine will eventually go to a grandson and so on each time adding the name of the father.

I had a jeweler in Lop Buri fill the stamped areas on the blade with silver and gold and another created the plaited silver wire wraps on the scabbard that replaced the original twisted wire.

I think the boy will be pretty pleased - I am!

Dan

[KuKulzA28]

that looks beautiful. I don't know much about dha/darb, but that will make quite the heirloom. Do you plan for this to be a user? Ya know, out in the woods/jungle, hacking away at the vines and gathering the kindling, etc. ?

[Gavin Nugent]

I saw the initial post and thought what a nice shaped blade, then the time warp happened and whao, what a show stopper, quite an inspiration!!!
I'd love to have something like this done in Chinese form, absolutley stunning!!!

Gav

[David]

Just plain WOW!
KuKulz, i hope you were just kidding about hacking away at vines.