Another kayan mandau

[Maurice]

Here to share pics from a kayan mandau. Old style.
Wooden handle, and wonderful blade with inlays and curls.
Unfortunately no scabbard .

[asomotif]

Hi Maurice,

Nice blade !

A little more light on the handle pics would have been nice.

Old style I guess you have been talking to Ben a lot

[Sajen]

Very nice worked blade, congrats!

sajen

[David]

So what about this blade makes it "old style"?
I am also a bit curious about material choices for mandau hilts. It seems that most of the time antler or bone is the choice material, but we do see wood ones like this occasionally that are obviously nicely carved and not a cheep tourist item. Is there some reason the maker would choose wood over antler when antler seems to be the status quo?

[Mytribalworld]

Originally Posted by David

So what about this blade makes it "old style"?
I am also a bit curious about material choices for mandau hilts. It seems that most of the time antler or bone is the choice material, but we do see wood ones like this occasionally that are obviously nicely carved and not a cheep tourist item. Is there some reason the maker would choose wood over antler when antler seems to be the status quo?

Hi David,

I can only guess but maybe because some hilt shapes are a little difficult to realize in horn. the carver is limited in size and model if he carves his hilt from horn.The shape of the piece of horn is of course the base for the hiltmodel and I can imagine that the hilt of Maurice's mandau wich is a old Kajan style is difficult to carve from a piece of horn
In those old hilts is the sidebranch in an angle of 90 degrees but mostly the angle of a deerhorn branch is 60-70 degrees.

Also mostly woodenhilts are bigger whats not possible in horn mostly.

I don't know if I'm rigth but I may be an explanation.

Arjan

[Emanuel]

I find it very interesting that, while carved in wood, the hilt nonetheless mimics the structure of a bone handle. An analogy comes to mind, with early Greek temples. Stone architectural details (metopes, triglyphs, etc...) were derived from the earlier structural wooden joinery. The material changed, but appearance was maintained out of convention, even when no longer functional or natural.

I imagine the choice of handle material was also subject to availability. Much easier to use a material that's readily at hand, than go out and hunt or stockpile material for future use .

Thoughts...

On another note, nice blade I've been puzzled by the abundance of crowits. Some of the new/touristy examples that have been shown on this forum and that pop up on ebay sometimes have lots of them.

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by asomotif

A little more light on the handle pics would have been nice.

Hi Willem. First I am not a good photographer. But feel free to make the pics of the handle lighter and enclose them in this thread....I am not a good photo-editor... But on my computer I can see all the details, so maybe it is the adjustment of the computerscreen.

Originally Posted by asomotif

Old style I guess you have been talking to Ben a lot

Yes I have been talking with Ben a lot. But I did not discuss this one with Ben. I discussed it with someone else.

Originally Posted by David

So what about this blade makes it "old style"?
I am also a bit curious about material choices for mandau hilts. It seems that most of the time antler or bone is the choice material, but we do see wood ones like this occasionally that are obviously nicely carved and not a cheep tourist item. Is there some reason the maker would choose wood over antler when antler seems to be the status quo?

Thanks Arjan for your explanation. I didn't have an answer on Davids question.

Originally Posted by Emanuel

I've been puzzled by the abundance of crowits. Some of the new/touristy examples that have been shown on this forum and that pop up on ebay sometimes have lots of them.

When you take a good look, you will see that the curls are different than the "new touristic" ones. Also the blade inlay will be different than "new" ones. I attached a photo from a book of Anton W. Nieuwenhuis from before 1900.
Here you can see some curls and holes that can be found on my kayanmandau (I marked them with red lines). Newer touristic ones have different curls.