Ausjulius and Spiral:
I really think we are agreed on the possible place these luxury goods might have had in Burmese society of 1900. As I noted in my original post:
So who would have bought these expensive quality items in the colonies? Perhaps ex-patriots for employees on their plantations. Perhaps wealthy locals who had the money to buy them. But I doubt many would have found their way to the hill country where the largely untamed Kachin lived.
I suppose poorer people in that time could have obtained these tools in much the same way the Naga obtained English-made hoes to create their dao, by appropriating them in the dark of night.
Ian.