Knife for Indentification
 

Hi all!

My latest ebay find. I know I've seen something like it before but I just can't remember where. All I have is the seller photos right now. Brass handle, OAL 16" according to seller.

As always I'd very much appreciate any information anyone may have.

Thanks a lot!

Hi CourseEight,

looks like a Ram D'ao. A sacrifical knife used to behead small animals.

Regards David

I thought ram dao at first, but the patterning along the top is something I have seeen more on panabas then on ram dao. Also never seen an entirely brass ram dao handle.

Further searching yields another one posted a while ago:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ht=sacrificial

Posted as Malay. The handle shape does seem to have more in common with a parang ginah than a ram dao.

Appreciate any info anyone has! At least I know now where I've seen it before...

I was thinking more Malay or even Borneo......

The handle does look rather similar to Parang Ginah and several others forms of weapons similar in type, like the Kelantanese Klewang, Parang Jengok, Parang Jambul etc.. all native to the northern Malaysian states of Kelantan, Trengganu and the Malay majority southern Thai states of Pattani... but this are usually made of hardwood and seldom of all metallic material. The blade forms of these weapons are usually more sickle like in appearance too.

The decorative features of the blade does not look similar to the northern peninsula malay styles... I am uncertain whether they are more closer in appearance to Bornean weapons though..

An interresting weapon... are there any damascene pattern on the blade?

Hi All --

Thanks for the additional comments. Now that I have the item in hand, some clarifications:

(1) Definitely not a ram dao, since the edge is along the bellied (outer curve). So, not a sickle weapon as expected. The edge is still fairly sharp.

(2) The black is heavily oxidized, so there is little chance of my finding any sort of damascus pattern, although it is clearly forged rather than stock removed.

(3) The top has some damage where the pattern does not complete, so it appears the blade was reshaped to accomodate the damage. As the oxidation is pretty consistent, this would have happened some time ago.

All in all, it's too small for a brush knife, so I lean towards some sort of ceremonial use. If anyone comes accross any new info, please let me know!

BigG
 

As Alam noted in the thread below, I think BigG hit the nail on the head with his writings here.

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ghlight=parang

Gav