New Acquisition, Mandau, said to be 1800's

[JoeCanada42]

fair enough but why put it there in the early 20c?

I don't know enough about the font type to say its definitely not older font

I do see the older VOC are carved but I don't think that its impossible either for someone to have stamps circa 1800,

for me this is not valid to rule out the possibility of it being older .

[JoeCanada42]

antler thanks, and thanks for the discourse so far,

I read for the best Dayak blades the purchaser would pay a native 10x the initial purchase cost to have the sword used for up to a year to test its quality, and that on these good native blades the beveled concave edge was sanded down by hand... it looks like that's what I got, not a forged or grinded down shape.
also the curve to the blade I was hoping is something the happened when tempered the old fashion way.

[JoeCanada42]

hmm I did research human bone vs animal bone and saw that human is more porous ( one side of mine looked "porous"), I neglected to research bone compared to antler, I will research it.
I was aware antler was more common for these including the older ones.

[werecow]

I recently saw a mandau with H.S. stamped into it in similar manner. All it said was early 20th century. Unfortunately I can't post pictures since it is still on sale.

[Sajen]

Hello Joe,

May I ask if the blade has a concave/convex profile?

Regards,
Detlef

[David]

Originally Posted by Sajen

Hello Joe,

May I ask if the blade has a concave/convex profile?

Regards,
Detlef

As to Detlef's question here, some might argue, but from my understanding a mandau has a convex/concave blade. This blade does not. So for my money this is not really a mandau. While it does have some age, i don't think i would place it much older than early 20th century. It's hard to say more about the blade with a good cleaning to remove all that dirt and rust. This could be a European blade that was adapted. It has some odd features i have not seen on this type of sword before.
What i can say without a doubt is that there is no way this is a VOC blade. Cleaning the blade might help reveal what is actually stamped into the steel, but i seriously doubt it is VOC.

[Sajen]

Agree with David, when it has indeed not a convex/concave blade it isn't a mandau!

Regards,
Detlef

[kai]

Hello Joe,

Originally Posted by David

As to Detlef's question here, some might argue, but from my understanding a mandau has a convex/concave blade. This blade does not.

From the pics, I'm not sure yet - please confirm, Joe!

The concave side can be (almost) flat, too: It's more that the other side does exhibit a clearly convex profile...

Regards,
Kai