Vietnamese talismanic knife?

[blue lander]

The hilt seems to be attached with super glue, so maybe it's a recent repair/addition to a legitimately old knife. Or maybe the whole thing is a sloppy tourist piece.

[blue lander]

Here's the pictures.

First up is the writing on both sides of the knife, assuming it is writing. It doesn't look like any writing system I've seen on wikipedia, but it doesn't look like random decorative patterns either. So I assume it is some sort of writing.

Next are closeups of the figure. I still don't know what it's made of. There's a hole going through its mouth. You can see what looks like a seam going down the front, but there's no seam on the back nor is there a seam on the "unshaped" part of the hilt.

[blue lander]

Here's a better picture of the front where the seam is. It's pretty obvious from this angle that it's a seam and not a flaw in the material. Also a picture of the back of the head.

I attached a picture of where the blade meets the bolster, it looks to be filled with a natural material like wood. It feels waxy. I think the old handle broke off and this one's a modern replacement. The face isn't even properly aligned with the "edge" of the knife.

Lastly a picture of the "tip" of the knife.

[Tim Simmons]

You need to do more research on this piece. Cast glass has been used for centuries. India, China, Asia have been making cast glass beads for centuries. The glue looks like any other natural gum or resin glue. I still think you have an interesting item.

[blue lander]

Thank you, I will. The more I look the more I think it's just a "meed mor" Thai amulet knife. I found this one with a very similar handle shape and very similar markings on the blade. Of course the blade shape is completely different.

http://thaiamulets-dhammapath.blogsp...ul-mitmor.html

Edit: It looks like the script is called Khom Thai script, and is used for Buddhist mantras and charms and whatnot.

The "M" looking decorations at the bottom of the knife are apparently a mantra praising Buddha. I still haven't found one with the blade shape of mine, though. There's tons of sites out there about this stuff, maybe I'll send pictures around to them and see what they say.

[blue lander]

I posted some pictures of this thing on a Thai Amulet message board asking if anybody knew what it was. They said it's just a run of the mill "Meed Mor" amulet dagger. But Meed Mors always have pointy tips to them, so I asked why mine had such an usual shape. They said the tip had been broken off.

Now this thing is about 5mm thick so there's no way the tip could have broken off by accident. It would have had to have been done deliberately. Plus it looks nothing like a traditional Meed Mor knife even with the tip broken off, the shape is just completely different. So I think they just didn't know what it was.

[ausjulius]

hello , the odd shape of the knife head is typical thai e-toh knife shape..
it is not broken, just crubly made.