Chinese Dao

[kronckew]

Originally Posted by Philip

A nice classic example of the genre, thanks for sharing the pic. It has a guard of sorts, rather small, serving more to keep the user's hand fro sliding up onto the edge. The appearance of such a rudimentary guard on a Vietnamese weapon may be influenced by small or absent guards on a number of other SE Asian edged weapons such as dhas, barongs, and the like.

I bought it on a whim, really cheap, listed at auction as a 'machete'. on arrival I fell in love with it, it feels great in the hand, well balanced, and sharp as anything. the blade has been cleaned a bit, grip is untouched. It is not the sword of a 'gentleman'. It'll scare the stuffing out of any intruder I am certain. I already had a more recent one mass-made in El Salvador by a 'Machete' company, with a wooden grip and a larger integral flat guard, I'd wrapped the grip a bit more appropriately. The Truong is a LOT better. I show the grip/guard here just for illustration. It's not high on my list of go-to's. Better to wait for a real one and save your money for it.

[Philip]

wow, imagine one of these made in Central America. Wonders never cease. I thought that I'd seen it all some years ago when a friend forwarded to me an eBay listing showing a decorative pair of Chinese brass-mounted shortswords (double edged straight blades) that could well pass for old (not that the originals were all that fabulous to begin with) EXCEPT -- that each blade was deeply stamped at the forte, "MADE IN INDIA".