Kachin style dha/dao

[JeffS]

This was a gamble that paid off. No scabbard It was from the sellers grandfather believed to have been collected during WWII. The seller thought the handle was sheet steel but turned out to be high quality thick silver. The sword reminds me of swords from HuSa but I can not determine the construction yet. If hairpin, I suppose it would be classed as a sword dao. It was very rusty. The tang is unusually long extending almost full length of handle. There is also a hole and woven ring at pommel, wondering if it may have had a tassle or some such attached. I'm also seeing some type of regular marking in strips perpendicular to the blade (photo below) that looks to be a result of a tool, reminding me of similar marking from another dha I shared here. These are pretty shallow and I may opt to polish them out. There is also extensive scoring parallel to the blade as well as another form at a diagonal (not the same as sharpening marks also present) resulting in a crosshatch of markings difficult to interpret origin and reason.

[Iain]

A nice sword Jeff, and lovely to see the original silver and lacquer grip. The hole in the pommel is nothing more than the natural material used, which is a hollow bamboo.

Looking forward to seeing it cleaned up.

PS: I wouldn't worry about the naming convention, dha, dao, daab.... all means the same thing.

[JeffS]

Originally Posted by Iain

A nice sword Jeff, and lovely to see the original silver and lacquer grip. The hole in the pommel is nothing more than the natural material used, which is a hollow bamboo.

Looking forward to seeing it cleaned up.

Thanks Iain. Cleaned up nice so far. No hairpin lamination but nice temper line. Agreed the hole is natural but does look to have had something in it. I've uploaded some photos from an old Vandoo thread om Naga weapons. This sword is very similar but not sure hair is authentic. Thoughts?

[Battara]

That makes sense to me.

[Ian]

Jeff, I don't think the hair is authentic for a Kachin dha.