Unusual and Crude Naga Dao

[CharlesS]

This is one of the strangest Naga daos I have encountered. It features a double-edged ax blade that is split down the middle. One side of each blade is flat, the other convex. The top of each blade is just very slightly concave and blunt. You can see that the blade is roughly forged. It is heavy and every bit a weapon, but I have not seen a split blade like this before. The haft and hair decoration are typical of Naga style.

Comments and observations are welcomed.

Dimensions:
Overall length: 29.5in.
Length of the ax head: 9.5in.
Widest point of the ax head: 4.75in.

[Battara]

I have actually seen this form before. Rare and interesting.

[Ian]

Rawson's book on The Indian Sword shows a number of unusual designs for Naga dao. I don't see one that matches this example closely, but he makes the point that these unusual shapes were largely ceremonial and that the plain dao were for use as tools and weapons.

This one shows the usual crude blacksmithing techniques of the Naga whom Rawson describes as "iron-poor" and who had to resort to reusing iron scrap, which often resulted in low quality blades. Higher quality iron and steel was "obtained" from English plantations which used good quality iron and steel tools that could be adapted to dao.

Ian.