Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - 19thc Chinese naval dao

Maj-Biffy Snodgrass · 13th May 2023, 06:40 PM

Hi Jim, thanks for your input, very interesting large ba gua dao, I am pretty up on Chinese swords and history having had many over many years in trade and collecting, have also learned a lot here even though I chose not to join for many many years but now having joined I think I have enough knowledge of a certain region to be able to pass on some knowledge but I certainly not an expert on Chinese swords by a long shot.
As mentioned before I have had the paired hudiedao types and singles of various sizes, also many other types over the years including the hudiedao hook blade types, but this one I have now is not typical of the type which are often referred to as the Hudiedao, this is a full sword, not a large knife for use in close quarter, it is much more like the size of your dao shown in your pics, which is why I referred to it as a cutlass type sword rather than a single Hudiedao.

Here is another I have with straight blade and the type guard often seen on 19thc boxer dadao's and later ones up to ww2, this one is likely later 19thc, but unusually this one is straight and single edged blade, it has a red lacquered crotchet cord type hilt wrap, unusual for its type as most are cloth wrapped cord, the guard I did think was possibly marked but it likely is just pareidolia on my part for thinking it, if it is a mark it is very corroded and un readable.
The green masking tape on the hilt ring is holding in a small piece of the hilt wrap that was loose which I have now restored.

Thanks again for your input, although I don't hold with the idea that all hudiedao were used by pirates river or seafaring, some maybe have been so used by them, but I think Pirates river or seafaring would have used many different types of bladed weapon, martial artists to, there were many styles of martial art that had many different types of swords attached to the different styles.
There are also references to Chinese pirates of the south China seas favouring the Borneo and Sarawak mandau as a weapon of choice, likely also because they are short enough for close quarter IN fighting. Snody

13th May 2023, 06:40 PM	#16
Maj-Biffy Snodgrass Member Join Date: Mar 2023 Posts: 66	Daos.. Hi Jim, thanks for your input, very interesting large ba gua dao, I am pretty up on Chinese swords and history having had many over many years in trade and collecting, have also learned a lot here even though I chose not to join for many many years but now having joined I think I have enough knowledge of a certain region to be able to pass on some knowledge but I certainly not an expert on Chinese swords by a long shot. As mentioned before I have had the paired hudiedao types and singles of various sizes, also many other types over the years including the hudiedao hook blade types, but this one I have now is not typical of the type which are often referred to as the Hudiedao, this is a full sword, not a large knife for use in close quarter, it is much more like the size of your dao shown in your pics, which is why I referred to it as a cutlass type sword rather than a single Hudiedao. Here is another I have with straight blade and the type guard often seen on 19thc boxer dadao's and later ones up to ww2, this one is likely later 19thc, but unusually this one is straight and single edged blade, it has a red lacquered crotchet cord type hilt wrap, unusual for its type as most are cloth wrapped cord, the guard I did think was possibly marked but it likely is just pareidolia on my part for thinking it, if it is a mark it is very corroded and un readable. The green masking tape on the hilt ring is holding in a small piece of the hilt wrap that was loose which I have now restored. Thanks again for your input, although I don't hold with the idea that all hudiedao were used by pirates river or seafaring, some maybe have been so used by them, but I think Pirates river or seafaring would have used many different types of bladed weapon, martial artists to, there were many styles of martial art that had many different types of swords attached to the different styles. There are also references to Chinese pirates of the south China seas favouring the Borneo and Sarawak mandau as a weapon of choice, likely also because they are short enough for close quarter IN fighting. Snody Attached Images