Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

BluErf · 16th November 2008, 02:10 AM

Hello Michael,

Sorry for taking a while to get back. Had to dig out my books, which are still the various stages of being unpacked since I moved house.

I looked up the reference of golok rembau in the Hill article and saw that it was a mention of this golok being similar to the tumbok lada, but larger.

Also referring to Zonneveld's book, I found that it had adopted the same definition from Hill.

But that could be sufficient to make a differentiation, because in both Hill's article and Zonneveld's book, the tumbok lada was illustrated as a dagger with a slightly curved, short and broad blade, with a hilt in the form of a thick cylinder with a flat/near flat pommel. The sewar by comparison, is proportionately longer, slimmer and has a more pronounced curve. Furthermore, the hilt does not have the same bulky cylindrical look to it.

In Zonneveld's book, the sewar specimens published ranged from 19.5cm to 33.5cm, showing that a wide range of sizes is possible for sewars. The text also made mention of large sewars used as a machete.

Hence, though this blade of mine is larger than the biggest speciment published in Zonneveld's book at about 40cm, I think it is most likely still a sewar due to the blade and hilt form.

16th November 2008, 02:10 AM	#13
BluErf Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Singapore Posts: 1,180	Hello Michael, Sorry for taking a while to get back. Had to dig out my books, which are still the various stages of being unpacked since I moved house. I looked up the reference of golok rembau in the Hill article and saw that it was a mention of this golok being similar to the tumbok lada, but larger. Also referring to Zonneveld's book, I found that it had adopted the same definition from Hill. But that could be sufficient to make a differentiation, because in both Hill's article and Zonneveld's book, the tumbok lada was illustrated as a dagger with a slightly curved, short and broad blade, with a hilt in the form of a thick cylinder with a flat/near flat pommel. The sewar by comparison, is proportionately longer, slimmer and has a more pronounced curve. Furthermore, the hilt does not have the same bulky cylindrical look to it. In Zonneveld's book, the sewar specimens published ranged from 19.5cm to 33.5cm, showing that a wide range of sizes is possible for sewars. The text also made mention of large sewars used as a machete. Hence, though this blade of mine is larger than the biggest speciment published in Zonneveld's book at about 40cm, I think it is most likely still a sewar due to the blade and hilt form.