A heavy fighting Laos daab

[Iain]

It's perhaps worth showing as well the pommel with its 'flaw' as some members might not be familiar with the way in which daab are constructed when there is a hilt of this type.

The hilt is cast using the 'lost wax' casting method, quite often the metal used in Laos or Thailand was a mix and not just brass and can also include gold, known as samrit. Resin or ki’tai in Thai, made from the gluta usitata tree, is used not only to secure the blade to the hilt, but also to attach elements like the pommel. You can see in this case the entire pommel was filled with the resin. There was likely a flaw in the casting on this piece that was then probably aggravated by expansion from humidity in the hilt. But it does at least let us see the "guts" of the sword.