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Old 31st January 2023, 06:42 PM   #5
kronckew
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Room 101, Glos. UK
Posts: 4,145
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Sigh....

This looks nothing like a Hei Ho klewang., not the blade, not the guard, not the grip and not the scabbard. I have a real Dutch klewang and am well aware of it, it's variants and its dimensions. ALL the hei ho ones I've seen for sale are boringly the same and very little in details. A local smithy modding the originals would have not be making them all the same, like a factory being ordered by a Japanese overlord would. I have other proper 'klewangs', and this is not in any way one.

P.s. The original Dutch sword is already shortened, compared to the Dutch swords of the time, to fit the local preferences. They did not 'allow' them to be modified by their police auxiliaries, after all the effort that went into designing and making them. The Japanese, however, had no investment in the design and modified them to their standards and issued them for their own purposes. I imagine they did not want a 'native' auxiliary to have a proper sword

My Dutchy just for comparison. These were made not only by the Dutch, (HEMBRUG) but by the USA (MILSCO) for use by US forces in WW2. Some were even made in Solingen. ALL to essentially the same exact pattern, tho later ones had a plastic grip, the rest were blueprint accurate copies. Mine was taken from Dutch stocks in Europe, and used unmodified by the Germans on their S-Boats. It was captured by a Brit in a boarding action by a Brit Naval Officer in a British MTB in WW2.
It's connection to me is one of my FILs Was in Command of a UK MTB, lost his leg in a similar melee with the Germans, and actually met the German S-Boot officer that shot him (and who's boat he'd shot up)after the war. Apparently they got along well and spent a good while telling war stories, and finally figured out their own closer connection that one fatal night. My FIL told me about two German hunting swords he'd 'liberated' from one Schnell Boot he'd captured. Sadly, he'd turned them into the police before we met during one of the UK Govt.'s war on knives and other offensive weapons.
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Last edited by kronckew; 31st January 2023 at 07:10 PM.
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