Old Taiwanese Aboriginal Sword

RSWORD · 1st June 2013, 04:33 PM

One of the things I truly enjoy about this forum is the opportunity to learn about swords from areas that might be outside my personal collecting interest. I have seen many threads about Taiwanese aboriginal swords and how rare they are. In my 20+ years of collecting, I had only personally seen and handled one example prior. So it was to my surprise and delight when I ran across 3 examples. I want to learn more about these swords so am posting them in 3 separate threads to discuss their attributes.

This first example has some unique characteristics to it from what I have been able to learn through this forum. First, the carving on the handle is different than some of the ancestor faces I have seen on other examples. The carved wood is accented with thin strips of inlaid metal. There is remnants of white dye on the metal to give it a nice contrast to the wood, which has a lovely reddish brown patina. The wood has split on one side, but the handle has been wrapped tightly with wire and this looks like an old and original native repair.

The scabbard has a lovely carved snake with red and black accents. At the end, there is an interesting "leg" and there are a couple of "appendages" on the side around the middle. I don't know what the symbolism with those items are but would love to know. The reverse of the scabbard is open faced but the lower 2/3rds of the scabbard is covered with metal with a bunch of faces punched into the metal. It's a lucky thing that part is still there because most of the metal pins are gone. Just one left to hold this thing on.

The blade is slightly hollow ground on one side and slightly beveled on the opposite side. Although the blade is pretty well patinated, I can still make out some sections where the way the blade has patinated shows that this blade has an inserted edge.

So to me, this seems to have a different type of face carving in the handle and the snake on the scabbard is very detailed but with some interesting additional features. Am I correct to assume this is Paiwanese?

1st June 2013, 04:33 PM	#1
RSWORD Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Greensboro, NC Posts: 1,084	Old Taiwanese Aboriginal Sword One of the things I truly enjoy about this forum is the opportunity to learn about swords from areas that might be outside my personal collecting interest. I have seen many threads about Taiwanese aboriginal swords and how rare they are. In my 20+ years of collecting, I had only personally seen and handled one example prior. So it was to my surprise and delight when I ran across 3 examples. I want to learn more about these swords so am posting them in 3 separate threads to discuss their attributes. This first example has some unique characteristics to it from what I have been able to learn through this forum. First, the carving on the handle is different than some of the ancestor faces I have seen on other examples. The carved wood is accented with thin strips of inlaid metal. There is remnants of white dye on the metal to give it a nice contrast to the wood, which has a lovely reddish brown patina. The wood has split on one side, but the handle has been wrapped tightly with wire and this looks like an old and original native repair. The scabbard has a lovely carved snake with red and black accents. At the end, there is an interesting "leg" and there are a couple of "appendages" on the side around the middle. I don't know what the symbolism with those items are but would love to know. The reverse of the scabbard is open faced but the lower 2/3rds of the scabbard is covered with metal with a bunch of faces punched into the metal. It's a lucky thing that part is still there because most of the metal pins are gone. Just one left to hold this thing on. The blade is slightly hollow ground on one side and slightly beveled on the opposite side. Although the blade is pretty well patinated, I can still make out some sections where the way the blade has patinated shows that this blade has an inserted edge. So to me, this seems to have a different type of face carving in the handle and the snake on the scabbard is very detailed but with some interesting additional features. Am I correct to assume this is Paiwanese? Attached Images