Wobbly guards on Jians and Daos

[Atlantia]

Originally Posted by Philip

I recognize that peidao as a mass produced pattern that was cranked out in large numbers at the end of the 19th cent., probably to arm hastily-recruited militias. They are quite common since many were brough back by foreign troops sent to quell the Boxer rebellion. Nothing about them indicates any sort of quality control, it seems that the components were made more or less to some sort of standard but without much care for fit and finish. When the saber was new, the pressure of the grip assembly kept the guard tight enough but as the wood shrank, the looseness was inevitable considering the oversized tang aperture.

One pattern of military saber of the 18th and early 19th cent., probably issued to the jianruiying or elite assault troops, had a solid brass guard peened to the blade via little spurs of metal raised from the tang's corners with a cold-chisel. The pommels and grips can be dismounted if necessary but those guards are on for good unless you get through the peening first.

LOL, my poor old Dao! Not exactly a glowing review!

[Neil]

Many of the "village smith" ring pommel dao I have seen have significant play and gap-page in the guard. I am wondering if there are examples of period shimming or something of that nature that others have seen. Could a certain amount of play just have been the norm for the time as well. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks

[fearn]

Since one major point of a guard is to guard your hand, I don't think a loose guard is a good thing. Since the other point of a guard is to keep rain out of the scabbard, a loose guard isn't very useful in that context either.

My personal guess is that anyone who really cared about the state of their dao probably shimmed and sealed it into utility.

Best,

F

[Philip]

I've seen a fair number of the village smith and late military daos with attempts to stabilize the disc guard when it got loose. One way of doing it was to drive thin wood wedges into the gap on either side, trimming the tag ends flush with the frontal surface of the guard. I've also seen small-diameter cord wrapped and tied behind the guard, the ferrule then being driven forward to cover it. The ring-pommel hilted dadao or falchions were kept in leather scabbards which were split at the dorsal side to allow easy withdrawal, so weatherproofing was not in the cards here. In fact, the Vietnamese often dispensed with scabbards completely with these knives, instead slinging them over the back like a carbine via a thick cord knotted through the ring, the other end having an iron hook that went through a small hole drilled in the dorsal peak of the blade. When worn in this way, the blade tended to rotate outward so that the edge faced away from the owner's body.

At least these guards, if not carefully fitted-up, merely loosen instead of falling off. I've had to restore the hilts on several Ottoman shamshirs and kilijs over the years, and because of the bulbous pommels the guards don't slide forward onto the tang to lock up against the blade shoulders as with most other swords. They are put on from the front, and an adhesive resin holds the langets into recesses in the grip. When the mastic gives way, these things can loosen or become detached.