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Originally Posted by bluelake
The sword on the far left looks a lot like a British naval cutlass.
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Excellent observation Bluelake, and indeed these varying proportion hudeie dao do reflect the European influence that became quite common in many weapons in colonial periods, especially in China in this case 19th century.
The key element is of course the knuckleguard, and while the prevalent number of these seem situated in the 19th century, used for double handed combat techniques in martial arts of various schools, there is I believe evidence of these as early as 18th century.
The 'hook swords' are of much more ancient lineage traditionally, but were still present in later martial arts weaponry.
These Chinese weapons are not in my field of study either (see previous post) and I was interested to see the responses on these before checking resources and doing some research in order to write on them. Although I do not have a huge library here in the 'bookmobile', I have found the search function here as well as the wonders of the computer astounding in giving me the information which is transformed into knowledge, which I share by posting, always hoping for the readers out there to follow in kind.
Thank you Bluelake as well, for posting and participating. Every observation is important, as we can never know what thing becomes a key direction in study.
Best regards,
JIm