Mark, from the meeting, I learned that Ayuthaya 's a kind of culture soup. There are more than 20 ethnic groups in that little area. We estimated more than 100 Krabi-KraBong schools were co-exist. This kind of Dahb (according to its archaeological site, we named Wat KaiTia style blade) could be just one of many other major styles. Beside this one, especially in the late Ayuthaya, glass leaf, rice leaf, sheep foot, cut-off head and Japanese influenced styles were also popular. I cannot say that Ayuthaya blades have uniformly width. But I can say that this style has been popularly used, and, so far, the oldest one we have found for that local and period.
The PaGan is inner ferrule. So you cannot see it from outside, without removal of the handle. Even without little plate guard, most of the hilts are covered with resinous stuff. And in my recent case, the inner ferrule is made of wood !!! (which I hypothesized as a transition between metal PaGan and no PaGan) If excessive force were applied during outer ferrule removal, or the handle has too much weather damage, you might not be able to find the inner one.
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