thanks for all that work mark, i'm glad you were able to make some sense
of it, i like knowing all i can find out about my collection items. i was hoping
there was a date on it in the inscriptions so i'd have an idea of how old it
is.
i'll be leaving the nail in for now, may replace it with a silver pin later. the
tang on the new one is about an inch or so longer than the one on my
other burmese dha, the tang on this one extends about 3.5" into the grip:
shown with a 21" kukhri. the dha was brought back from burma by a chindit
who took it off a japanese who no longer needed it. i gather the japanese
had taken it off a burmese who no longer needed it. the chindit of course
used his kukhri to convince the japanese of the need to visit his ancestors.
silver niello work on the blade sides and spine. the bit on the spine has a
gold border.
my naga dha just to complete the set.
i had a parang (~12" blade) last weekend that looked like the previous owner
had secured the tang to the grip with some crumbling powdery substance, it
came loose with a slight pull to reveal a 2" tang tapering from about 1/2" wide
down to 1/4", i reset it in the wood handle with some resin & tested it out on
a 2 inch thick branch in my garden that needed removal. branch did not survive,
parang did & handle is not going anywhere. they made them like that thru many
centuries and i'm sure if they were not strong enough, they'd not be made that way.