SE ASIA knife ?

[Kmaddock]

Hi All,

I purchased the attached knife yesterday.
Overall length is 37 cm in scabbard.

Blade length of 21 cm and handle of 11 cm.

Very sharp and steel in the blade is v good quality, single sided, some small rust spots.

Quiet a light knife and very usable.

Scabbard is made of 2 parts held together with rattan binding handle is rattan bound also.

I think it is from SE Asia , Malaysia, Laos Vietnam area etc but this is just from the style of scabbard.

I would appreciate any pointers as to what this is.

Many thanks as ever,

Ken

[Ian]

Burmese dha, but might also be Shan, Thai or Lao. It's a general purpose utility knife. This one appears to have have been carried and used. There is quite a lot of information about dha on these pages, and the blades come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes depending on the ethnic groups.

[Kmaddock]

Thanks Ian
Yes it looks like it has been used and is razor sharp
I had looked at Dha's but I thought Dha's were longer than this
Regards
Ken

[Yvain]

I've also seen that type of scabbard with vietnamese knives (the all steel ones, with a rolled handle), but I guess this type could be widly used in SE Asia.

[Ian]

Hi Ken,

Dha/dah in Burma (daab in Thailand or Laos; darv in Cambodia) is a general term for a knife or sword of widely varying lengths. Dha hmung is what knives are usually called in Burma.

The style of your knife occurs widely in mainland SE Asia. There are variations in blade shape that are more common to some areas. Again, you can find these mentioned elsewhere in the Forum (look, for example, for enep/enap which is a common blade shape in Thailand and Laos). All cultures in the area have inexpensive utility knives made from local materials similar to your example.

Regards,

Ian

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by Ian

Dha/dah in Burma (daab in Thailand or Laos; darv in Cambodia) is a general term for a knife or sword of widely varying lengths. Dha hmung is what knives are usually called in Burma.

The style of your knife occurs widely in mainland SE Asia. There are variations in blade shape that are more common to some areas. Again, you can find these mentioned elsewhere in the Forum (look, for example, for enep/enap which is a common blade shape in Thailand and Laos). All cultures in the area have inexpensive utility knives made from local materials similar to your example.

Well explained Ian!

Here are a similar simple example from my collection.

Regards,
Detlef

[Kmaddock]

Thanks Ian for the further education.
Regards
Ken

[David R]

.... and thus I am inspired to share mine. Bought at a militaria fair some years ago, lost it's chape (I need to make one sometime) and probably missing some sort of wrap on the grip. What it does have is some nice inlay at the base of the blade.

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by David R

.... and thus I am inspired to share mine. Bought at a militaria fair some years ago, lost it's chape (I need to make one sometime) and probably missing some sort of wrap on the grip. What it does have is some nice inlay at the base of the blade.

Your one was once a very nice example, I would try to give it back a little bit of this glory. It is a Burmese dha hmung, nice blade, would like to see better pictures. Yes, there is missing something at the handle, wire binding, silver sheet or something else.

Regards,
Detlef

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by Ian

Burmese dha, but might also be Shan, Thai or Lao. It's a general purpose utility knife. This one appears to have have been carried and used. There is quite a lot of information about dha on these pages, and the blades come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes depending on the ethnic groups.

Shan seems correct, Northern Thai or Burma.

Regards,
Detlef