Unique Twistcore Knife From Southern Thailand
 

Here is a unique knife form southern Thailand, likely Pattani, that features an attractive twistcore blade. The hilt is from Asian water buffalo and carved in the form of a stylized naga head. The scabbard is likely not the one "born with" it, but is a decent fit.

You can see the blade has a number of forging flaws and some very mild pitting, but I think it is still quite impressive.

A similar example was sold in a Hermann's Historica Auction last year, and yet another similar example showed up on FaceBook's Ethnographic Weapons and Primitive Currencies page. Neither of those had twistcore blades.

Dimensions:
Overall length: 15.75in.
Blade length: 10 in.
Blade's widest point: 1.5in.

That's a really neat blade, Charles! I believe this is a badek.

Here's another recent thread: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=25543 (different blade though)

Regards,
Kai

I like this pattern! Good for you!

Kai,

I can see why this piece would conjure up similarities to the Indonesian badek/badik, but I believe in both the Indonesian context(because it doesn't fully fit the profile) and the Thai context, badek would not be the correct name for it.

Perhaps some of our SE Asian experts have a name that would be more appropriate to the region.

Hello Charles,

Sorry for being a bit unclear - I wasn't referring to the well-known Sulawesi dagger that pretty much got distributed all over the archipelago.

This type of blade (actually more akin to a sewar) is called badek by northern Malays (including those nowadays under Thai jurisdiction).

Regards,
Kai

Agree. :) You can call it also enep.

Regards,
Detlef