Acehnese Sikin

[kronckew]

hi y'all, thought i'd share this one with you. it decided it wanted to come live with me.

traditional acehnese sikin pedang,

overall view

grip/scabbard throat

in-hand view, noviar's (see below) hand, not mine, yet.

made by a village blacksmith in northern aceh province, indonesia, sold by a dealer just west of jakarta who is supporting the knifesmiths of the area which was devastated in the 2005 tsunami, as well as smiths in java.

Item Description:
Condition : New
Weight : +/- 800 gram
Material : Handle & Sheath = Buffalo Horn, Mentru Wood
Blade = Spring Steel
Overall Length : +/- 29" / 83 cm
Blade Length : +/- 21.5" / 54 cm
Handle Length : +/- 7.25" / 18.5 cm

- It’s a new piece with wooden sheath, satin finish, sharp edge, and fully functional.
- The sheath is made of Mentru Wood, with simple ornament and stripes. Naga relief carving was added to the sheath near handle.
- The handle is made of solid black water buffalo horn.
- The handle bolster is made of carbon steel. This bolster has a flaw, i.e. a deep split of forging.
- This sikin is made by a native Acehnese blacksmith in North Aceh.

more pics when it arrives.

the seller, noviar at maranggi knives is a computer programmer/systems developer & practices silat as well as selling these knives and swords...his email bill message started off with 'thanks for trusting me'. thanks for selling, noviar! nice to see that these are still being made by traditional craftsman.

[asomotif]

And thanks for making them straight and not curved.

Nice piece by the way.

[kronckew]

Originally Posted by asomotif

And thanks for making them straight and not curved.

Nice piece by the way.

yes, straight swords over 50cm. are benign and not dangerous, and can be imported into the UK for now - they apparently will become dangerous in the fall, while curved ones are dangerous if they are not 100 yrs. old. and cannot be sold, imported, or loaned, unless they were made in japan, prior to 1954 or made by traditional cheap mass production techniques. they figure this will save at least one political career, and possibly even keep a tatami mat from getting badly damaged, so it's worth taking away our rights.

[kronckew]

well it arrived yesterday, he sent it EMS as a 'gift' tho i only paid for std. mail.

the wood scabbard is carved all over with a fine set of parallel lines, with decorative panels every 6 in. the throat protrusion and the area just above the polished black horn chape are also decoratively carved. the back only has the parallel lines except for a decorative band around the throat which goes right around.

the grip is polished horn, there are three inlaid white circles on either side which may cover rivets thru the tang. the sides of the grip are rippled-like smooth finger grooves, highly polished. the open 'mouth of the alligator' has been left fairly rough inside, not polished and showing sanding grooves tho it feels smooth to the touch.

there are two holes, one that appear to have been a void in the horn, the other looks like a slot for the tang, its filled with what appears to be sumatran cutlers cement, what some of us would call 'laha'. i'll probably fill them level with plastic steel & polish them a bit more.

the end of the horn next to the bolster is carved somewhat crudely with checkering which is also over the 1st set of white inlays. the octagonal scalloped bolster has a small forging flaw on one side, apparent in the photo below.

the 54cm. (21.25in.) blade itself is well balanced, feels good in the hand, starts out with a flat spine and changes to a V spine after about 76mm. (3 in.), blade is distally tapered, 5mm at guard, 3mm at the tip end of the fuller, 32mm wide blade, has a forged fuller either side almost to the tip, and has a steel guard disk slightly smaller in dia. than the scalloped end of the bolster, this appears to have been formed with or welded to the blade, then machined or filed flat (hopefully added before the final heat treatments). about 3mm (1/8 in.) sticks out ahead of the bolster, the rest appears to taper into and then under the bolster scallops for an unknown distance, tho the indications are it's at least 3/8" thick...

there is a stamp on the blade spine that looks like 'LO G' and the remains of a 4th letter which may be an N, H or M in between. i'll have to ask the vendor.

blade is wickedly sharp, convex edged.

now the pics.





the dark 'stain' on the blade just under the sundial's gnomen is actually the reflection of my head.

[Gonzalo G]

Originally Posted by kronckew

there are two holes, one that appear to have been a void in the horn, the other looks like a slot for the tang, its filled with what appears to be sumatran cutlers cement, what some of us would call 'laha'. i'll probably fill them level with plastic steel & polish them a bit more.

the 54cm. (21.25in.) blade itself is well balanced, feels good in the hand, starts out with a flat spine and changes to a V spine after about 76mm. (3 in.), blade is distally tapered, 5mm at guard, 3mm at the tip end of the fuller, 32mm wide blade, has a forged fuller either side almost to the tip, and has a steel guard disk slightly smaller in dia. than the scalloped end of the bolster, this appears to have been formed with or welded to the blade, then machined or filed flat (hopefully added before the final heat treatments). about 3mm (1/8 in.) sticks out ahead of the bolster, the rest appears to taper into and then under the bolster scallops for an unknown distance, tho the indications are it's at least 3/8" thick...

Kronckew, it is a nice descprition I would love to read in every sword or knife thread, including your mention to weights. It is the better way to understand what are we talking about, as the classification and photos are not enough to have a good knowledge of the pieces shown. Please, when you talk about laha, do you mean the same black natural glue used in India and Nepal? I find very interesting the form of the spine, because I don´t find in this moment a good reason to change it form flat to a "V", I suppose an inverted one. Do you know if this is a constant in this kind of weapons, old and new? Some kind of decoration, perhaps? What I don´t understand is, why do you think that the welding of the bolster to the blade after the thermal treatments is better than before them? I mean, if the welding is made by forge, it has to be done before. If the welding is made with soft weld, it would be of not use to make it before hardening, as it would fail under the heat, but if the soft weld is made after the thermal treatment with very soft materials and with due care, maybe the heat would not affect the previous hardening. Is this it what do you meant, or I understood wrongly? Thank you for your attention.
My regards

Gonzalo

[kronckew]

if it was forge welded together at the same time the blade was made, it is essentially 'integral' to the blade. that would be the best. silver soldering or other low temp. soldering would also be OK.

i have heard of some less particular 'smiths' electrically welding tangs, or extensions or even wood screws to blades afterwards, which would possibly ruin any heat treatment, and weaken the join. it at least would present a discontinuity in the chemical composition of the metal where the welding rod metal was deposited...

i've also seen welded steel ships that had had great care and inspection during construction crack under stress along the weld joints.

i do not see any signs that any modern welding has taken place on this blade tho. it appears to have been entirely hand forged. final finishing probably had an assist from power tools tho, which is also OK, otherwise it would cost a lot more..

and, yes, laha to me is himalayan epoxy tree resin, dung, brick dust, and other admixtures the kami's add to the recipe.

the inverted 'v' shape starts towards the tip from the stamped lettering forward, possibly to lighten the blade and improve the balance, it's also a bit more decorative. from above the stamped letters back to the guard it is flat. interestingly, the blade thickness swells (increases) by an additional 4mm. over about the last 4mm. forming a shoulder that the guard sets on. this joint then appears to have been hand filed and finished after welding. i see a similar flat spine transition to round or inverted V on some of my Dha's tho on those the flat extends for almost a third of the blade and is decorated with inlays.

[Gonzalo G]

Thank you for your response, Kronckew. I think your wrotte correctly ´smiths´, as electrical welding is not a smith way to do it.

[kronckew]

was taking pics of another sword, so i just took one of the spine area for illustration. my assistant decided he would spice up the background a bit

[kronckew]

turns out per the vendor, the stamp on the blade is BONG.

his reply makes interesting reading,

Originally Posted by noviar

Hello Wayne,

Thanks for your feedback and glad you like him and seem to me that he got good master and in good hand, I hope he like you too :-) The person who asked about the marking must be knife / blade lover and knowledgable user :-)

Your piece has its own history, it was my personal collection since 2006. The story of sikin started when I was hunting down the traditional Rencong maker, took me about 5-7 months for find a decent rencong bladesmith. I contact almost all institution that related to aceh from NGO to goverment department. In Aprill 2006, one of institution give me a contact of the brother of rencong maker in nort aceh. I called him and asked many thing, and place an order for few rencong. a mont later I got few rencong made by his brother name Ishak Abdullah. I got very good rencong, and good craftsmanship especially in his grinding skill and horn craft. Please see rencong_1_*.jpg
(ed. - the .jpgs he mentions in this quote section did not get thru, his attachments dfid and are below)

Than I place another order for 3 sikin and a pedang. A half and month later the delivered 3 sikin and a pedang, and they did another good job ;-) I'm very happy with their craftsmanship. I keep order few rencong just to help them get additional income, that time 2006 its kindda difficult time for most aceh people. By the end of 2006 and early 2007, another disaster ( flood ) strike north aceh, the last sms that I got is their knife shop was dissapear and carrid by the flood. Than I lost contact with them for many-many months. About 3 months ago they contact me and asked for help becasued he lost his job :-( So I place several order for rencong and other aceh knives.. And as usual they deliver some finest pieces that I ever had in term of grind quality.

The marking on your blade is "BONG" ( BONG_MARKING.JPG ), taken from the name of bladesmith brother, Amiruddin Bong.
And his brother Ishak Abdullah is considered one of the finest rencong maker in north aceh. I'm attaching the local publication of his brother ( Ishak_Abdullah_Pembuat_Rencong_Tanah_Pasir.jpg ) the text in the image is
"Rencong Maker
Ishak Abdullah ( 54 ) is completing a rencong making in Desa ( Village ) Meunasah Blang, Kecamatan Tanah Pasir, North Aceh. Ishak is the only one of Aceh traditional bladesmith who get order 4 pieces a day"

He is the 3rd / 4rd ( I forgot ) generation of Rencong maker, their granfather was one of rencong and other edge weapon maker in Aceh War. According to Bong, they are several skill that they can not reviva, one of them is making wooden sheath. Sadly but true, Aceh bladesmith has made wonderfull and amazing wooden sheat and handle in the past. And now its gone :-( I

Wayne, Sikin has many shape and name :-)
But like any other Indonesian naming system, they can be called by the distinct shape of blade then follow by its distinct shape of handle or origin or other porperties / element. The same shape can be called / named differently in some other places. ITs also happen with all aceh edge weapon. The 90 degree curve handle in rencong can be called as rencong canggei in north part of aceh, and in Banda aceh and other will be called with rencong meucanggek.

I'm attaching pics of the most popular sikin that I found in our Museum National in Jakarta. Last year, I made several research on some indonesian pieces, so I often visit museum to study and learn Indonesian pieces especially to study the character of sumatra pieces.

Sikin_*.jpg is few of aceh sikin, sikin.jpg and sikin_1.jpg is the most known sikin in the net, I belief its because of john works and publication in his website.Sikin_2_00.JPG is another type of sikin, is smaller and lighter. Please find the atachment for each distinct handle of sikin. And I'm attaching the tropen muesuem that I collect that show how rencong and sikin ae really used in aceh.. I really love this aceh warrior collection, in one of attachment you'll find the youngest people ( perhaps teenage ) that carry rencong and holding a sikin.. very lovely.

Sorry for this long, and I know my english not good and broken :-( but I hope you got my message :-)

Take Care
Noviar

PS: please give my regards to you comrades and for EMS is my special services for all winner that won my pieces. I have a budget for promotion, but I think buying and placing banner is not give me a good effect so I spend the money for upgrading the shipping from standart to express it surely give direct effect that made winner happy :-)

the pictures he sent, in a slide show: (click the picture)