A Good Malay Sundang With One Piece Carved Horn Hilt

[Gavin Nugent]

Originally Posted by David

Gav, i don't know that i have ever seen a the tang of a dha, but given the length of the hilts i always imagined that the tangs were much longer and therefore provide a much better attachment of blade to hilt than kris tangs. The value that i see in asang-asang that are properly attached to the hilt is that it makes it fairly certain that the hilt will not come loose from the blade during battle use. Kris tangs are not that long relatively speaking. The asang-asang serves a rather important function as i see it.
Can anyone provide any actual accounts of Malay sundangs being used in battle?

Hi David,

The tang on Dha are quite short really..as are Guom and I am sure others that I have not seen...in some instances, with relevance to the blade length & proportionally speaking the Sundang/Kris tangs are larger and longer.

I think Emanuel has nit the nail on the head in that the asang asnag only offers "additional" stability.

These longer blade types certainly generate more force over the their length and rarely falter. I have a Dah in my personal collection apart at the moment as the silver work is being professionally restored, its tang is small and my "Story" Dah was in pieces when I received it as it was taken from a Dead Japanese soldier in WWII and broken down in to a regulation US army sized box and its tang was about 3.5 inches long...all restored now and re-set...hard as nails again too and no chance of faltering unless of course it is abused.

Natural resins are a wonderful thing. They bind well with all aspects of hilt materials and offer a stable and consistent adhesive that "move" as differing materials do in hot and cold.

Gavin