- Yes, it's nice to have the original carrying strap, mostly when this strap appears quite original as it is a solid piece of bamboo that has been curved and linked at its extremities with a hemp string to the scabbard. Actually, I have the feeling that this knife is however missing a little something. If I'm not mistaking, it could have had some human hair attached to its extremity before, as it was the case for some knives from this tribe. After a closer look, a darker stripe of patina appears on the narrower part of the scabbard, meaning something had be hanging there long before.
-Concerning the article on Paiwan knives : this article is very interesting and one of the only sources of infos on the Paiwan knives published in English. It would be nice if someone was putting it here on the forum to facilitate its reading. I have myself tried recently to connect to the Sevenstarstrading website from Taiwan without success (I don't why). Fortunately, I keep a copy of this article printed on paper for myself.
-'Mo duan' : I don't know the name of this tribal knife in Atayal language. As for the Taiwanese, they call these knives 'dao zi', that simply means knife in mandarin, translated by 'dou' in taiwanese/min nan language. 'Mo duan' means in mandarin one extremity, without specifying which one. I can't tell you more on the other meanings of 'mo duan'.
-For the tribal knife making : only few artists/artcraftmen working the wood are still making the scabbard and the handle following the tribal tradition. Usually old persons. And they are doing it for their family or the members of their village. It's a very, very limited production. For the blade, I don't think anybody is still keeping on the tradition.
Yuanzhumin
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