Help with Sword ID

Abravefan11 · 28th August 2006, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wilked aka Khun Deng

One other item of note on your sword and others of the like can be found at the guard. There is a thin brass plate nailed into the stock of the handle and in every version I have seen there is no pitch under that plate securing the blade to handle. I've been told that means it was never made for true fighting as the pitch not only secures the blade but acts almost as a shock absorber.

Dan

I know what you're talking about in reference to the thin brass plate nailed into the stock of the handle. I'm not sure what you mean by "pitch."

Is this something I can see without taking the handle apart? If not how would I go about disassembling it?

Mark · 28th August 2006, 02:37 PM

Pitch would be a vegetable resin used to glue the blade into the handle. What Dan is referring to is that these kind of daab are often just pressure fit into the handle, without the pitch/resin to glue it in. It makes the blade even more likely to "fly off the handle" as the sword ages and the wood of the handle shrinks. I do have one sword that is simply pressure fit and is clearly a "user," though. It was said to be from Laos, but its hard to tell. In Burma, at least according to Ferrars & Ferrars, the dha blade was pressure fit, rather than pinned, so that it would not vibrate as much, and could be pounded back in when it became loose (this last seems a bit circular in reasoning, since it wouldn't tend to come loose if it were pinned in the first place). This doesn't exclude the use of glue, though. Plus I sometimes question the accuracy of what Ferrars & Ferrars wrote.

In Higham, The Archeology of Mainland Southeast Asia: "Yen has noted that the Canarium and Madhuca [butternut] are exploited by the local Shan for their resins and guns, substances valuable in hafting composite weapons and coating pottery vessels to improve their water retention." P. 53.

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28th August 2006, 02:37 PM	#2
Mark Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 987	Pitch would be a vegetable resin used to glue the blade into the handle. What Dan is referring to is that these kind of daab are often just pressure fit into the handle, without the pitch/resin to glue it in. It makes the blade even more likely to "fly off the handle" as the sword ages and the wood of the handle shrinks. I do have one sword that is simply pressure fit and is clearly a "user," though. It was said to be from Laos, but its hard to tell. In Burma, at least according to Ferrars & Ferrars, the dha blade was pressure fit, rather than pinned, so that it would not vibrate as much, and could be pounded back in when it became loose (this last seems a bit circular in reasoning, since it wouldn't tend to come loose if it were pinned in the first place). This doesn't exclude the use of glue, though. Plus I sometimes question the accuracy of what Ferrars & Ferrars wrote. In Higham, The Archeology of Mainland Southeast Asia: "Yen has noted that the Canarium and Madhuca [butternut] are exploited by the local Shan for their resins and guns, substances valuable in hafting composite weapons and coating pottery vessels to improve their water retention." P. 53.