"Neil, do you have any pictures of the Qing era Chinese prison guards, that would be interesting. I myself would call something rare when there are almost no images available online."
"Here is something I think we can agree is probably an indicator of Chinese manufacture, this particular four sided cross section. I have never seen a sai from either Indonesia or Okinawa that had this cross section."
Sorry for the slow response. I am putting my seasonal business to bed for the year and the hours are long.
I am also about to leave town for the weekend but I will share that image when I return. When I found it I was very excited. It is an important piece to the puzzle.
I thought I would also mention that I have owned a forked mace that I know was collected in China with a fully rounded percussion bar like a soda straw. With that said using the shape of the cross section of that area as an indicator of origin may not be the most reliable approach.
It might also be worth mentioning that the grip wrapping style on the mace pictured right above looks quite Chinese to me.
I am loving the actual pair example that Josh posted as well. To me that is rare and worth exploring further.
Lastly, I just want to say this is a great topic and discussion. I really appreciate hearing others thoughts and seeing pieces from their collections.
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