watcht his video you can see naga, husa and more burmese styles swrods bing used all at the same time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjM7IUd5jIo
Really interesting information. Thanks ausjulius. Do you know what this festival is celebrating?
the reason for the single bevel is hard to say 100% there is a number of single beveled knife and sword making cultures in this world.. there is 4 reaosns generally..
1- for cutting or splitting banboo and springy plants,
2- for working and levelling wood
3- for shaving or slicing or scraping mateirals closely.
4- no reason just asthetic
I would adda fifth reason. I have read that the beveled edge is more economical to construct without having to chisel into the iron to set the steel or making a complicated series of welds to fully sandwich and support the steel. I had read that is why the the Japanese (mentiioned below) used it.
the single bevel on the naga swords probably comes form them using it to clear close to the ground strubs and bamboo and to slip slivers of bamboo. it will bite and not skip up.. if you use the same shape of bevel to cut a large tree you will hate it.. but for springy items it works well as it bites in better than a double bevel.
sdome other cultures that use single beveled knives and sords are -
the mainland taiwanese aboriginal groups.
the japanesse for some swords, most spears and most knives and tools.
some part sof china,, especially around fujian mostly on kitchen knives and billhooks. although soem swords with be single beveled too
the buryat mongols.. for some knives only,
the yakutians for everyting including swords, glaives, spears ect. soem swords are quite massive but still single beveled..
the nenets for some knvies.
komi poeple for some knives.
the eskimo.
the Athabaskan people of alaska and canada for daggers and ulus.. their daggers are all one beveled on one side.
mongur people- for belt knives only
balinese for most knives and some swords.
peopel of lombok (sasak) people for some knives
nagas for swords swords other tools
the dayaks for most small knives and many swords ,.
all vasayan ethinc gorups in the philippines.
the most common example fo a european militaryt sword with a single bevel is the bazaar Austrian M1869 sabre.
ther eis also game wardens swords and military pioneers hangers that are heavy single beveled bladed tools for the 18th and 19th century. these again work great to cut steaks and to split and level wood. and are probably influenced by billhooks fo this tyle.. austria and russia had a love on such off blade profiles. the russian empire even issued them to game wardens.
For European style tools I have only used it on broad axes, shaping hatchets, sloyd knives. sickles, scythes, and chisels. This makes sense why some pioneer swords would be constructed that way as they were theoretically shaping tools and harvesting springy materials. It would not be fun to be a lefthanded pioneer! American broad axes are made so the head can be flipped to make them lefty friendly.
single bevel knives in genera seem strange to westeners. i do wonder if there is more european examples