New Acquisition, Mandau, said to be 1800's

David · 25th February 2023, 04:42 PM

Nice clean up Joe.
I am even more convinced that this blade has been adapted to this form from some other blade and has possibly been reshaped. And from the most recent photos you show i am still not seeing a concave/convex form of blade that is a key design element of the mandau blade.
What convinces me most that this may have started it's life as a different form of sword is the area on the edge side of the blade that remains flat and unsharpened and tapers distally for a fair bit of the length of the blade. I have never seen a mandau with this feature and wonder why they chose not to begin the edge of the blade for such a distance out from the hilt. Because of the way this sword is designed i can almost guarantee it was not used for headhunting and was probably more likely employed for the more common work of jungle clearing.
The letters still intrigue, but since a good part is lost to wear it is difficult to grab any useful information here. It is possible that you might be able to read a bit more of it if you did some kind of rubbing from the surface and then held it up to a mirror.

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25th February 2023, 04:42 PM	#12
David Keris forum moderator Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Nova Scotia Posts: 7,209	Nice clean up Joe. I am even more convinced that this blade has been adapted to this form from some other blade and has possibly been reshaped. And from the most recent photos you show i am still not seeing a concave/convex form of blade that is a key design element of the mandau blade. What convinces me most that this may have started it's life as a different form of sword is the area on the edge side of the blade that remains flat and unsharpened and tapers distally for a fair bit of the length of the blade. I have never seen a mandau with this feature and wonder why they chose not to begin the edge of the blade for such a distance out from the hilt. Because of the way this sword is designed i can almost guarantee it was not used for headhunting and was probably more likely employed for the more common work of jungle clearing. The letters still intrigue, but since a good part is lost to wear it is difficult to grab any useful information here. It is possible that you might be able to read a bit more of it if you did some kind of rubbing from the surface and then held it up to a mirror.