The Philip Tom article on the Paiwan swords

KuKulzA28 · 6th May 2010, 02:57 PM

I'm glad you posted this up yuanzhumin! If Atayal traditional blades aren't well known then the Paiwanese ones are even less well known. Hopefully I can get my hands on a quality piece someday...

"Despite their rather crude finish, the blades examined for this article appear to have been heat treated with considerable skill."

I am wondering, what is the history of aboriginal metal-working? Some say there was no metal-working before the arrival of Chinese and then Japanese... and yet there is evidence of metal working long before... were headhunting knives weapons that only appeared within the last 300-400 years? If so, how come aboriginal knives have so many similarities with Dyak and "Igorot" blades?

6th May 2010, 02:57 PM	#2
KuKulzA28 Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: between work and sleep Posts: 731	I'm glad you posted this up yuanzhumin! If Atayal traditional blades aren't well known then the Paiwanese ones are even less well known. Hopefully I can get my hands on a quality piece someday... "Despite their rather crude finish, the blades examined for this article appear to have been heat treated with considerable skill." I am wondering, what is the history of aboriginal metal-working? Some say there was no metal-working before the arrival of Chinese and then Japanese... and yet there is evidence of metal working long before... were headhunting knives weapons that only appeared within the last 300-400 years? If so, how come aboriginal knives have so many similarities with Dyak and "Igorot" blades?