Now I wonder if there is a book or article on the interrelations between all the Southeast Asian sabres, daggers, and brushcutting/fighting knives. Its hard to write the same study for pre-Roman Europe because the finds are all in different countries published in different languages and you have to measure them and sketch them yourself.
If you ever get a chance to study Early Iron Age weapons, there were a lot of creative cross-sections and blade shapes that show up again much later when they had steelmaking and heat treatment under control. They just are not as well preserved as ethnographic arms and armour. You can buy ancient Roman knives but they are not beautiful and shiny.
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