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View Full Version : Old Indonesian dagger for comment

Lew
28th July 2006, 07:44 PM
Hi All

Just picked this up today is it Sumatran/Aceh :confused:

http://cgi.ebay.com/19thC-Eastern-Horn-Handle-Dagger-with-Wooden-Scabbard_W0QQitemZ180010021073QQihZ008QQcategoryZ8 8903QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Lew
Rick
28th July 2006, 08:12 PM
It looks like it is Lew .
Nice simple functional piece .
Freddy
28th July 2006, 08:18 PM
Yep, it looks like a good rencong. Nice find ;)
kai
28th July 2006, 09:57 PM
Hi Lew,

Definitely a good buy: blade seems to be in good condition and with a traditional scabbard including inked decoration!

I'd guess that the hilt is made out of waterbuffalo horn but better have a close look... ;) BTW, no cracks on the hilt? If so, be especially careful not to let it dry out too much (many horn hilts have split due to shrinkage).

Regards,
Kai
Ferguson
29th July 2006, 03:10 AM
Simple and elegant.

The traditional knife of the Aceh people.

Steve
katana
29th July 2006, 09:04 PM
Functionality without to much embellishment/decoration ....my sort of knife..
well done Lou
Henk
30th July 2006, 08:53 AM
A good rencong from Aceh. A very nice piece. Congrats!
utami
9th August 2006, 03:52 AM
congrats, this rencong is in a very good condition. Beauty :)
Lew
9th August 2006, 05:09 PM
The dagger arrived today here are a few pics.


Lew
RhysMichael
9th August 2006, 08:21 PM
A nice rencong. You may have already seens this from Barbara Leigh's book on Aceh crafts "Hands of Time"
Acehnese say that the rencong takes the shape of the invocation, "Bismillaah In the name of God, the merciful and compassionate."

According to Drs. Syamsuddin and Drs. Nur Abbas of the Department of Education and Culture in Aceh, the component parts of the rencong can be likened to individual letters of the formal Arabic script huruf gundul, literally bare lettering, of the phrase Bismillaah

The hilt of the rencong is in the shape of "ba"
The decoration at the base of the hilt is "sin"
The blade's shape is "mim"
The shape of the metal parts at the top of the blade is "lam"
The base of the scabbard has the shape of the letter "ha"
Together, "ba, sin, mim, lam and ha" make up the world, "Bismillaah"
mmontoro
10th August 2006, 01:25 AM
Very nice example and a good deal, too. This was a good post on the UBB forum on these, explaining the grip and "L" shaped appendage well. Scroll down to Tom Kehoe's posts. His silat teacher is in the SF area and very respected.

http://www.vikingsword.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000746.html