Collection, or kitchen?

[ausjulius]

Originally Posted by shayde78

So, I picked these two items up a couple of months ago. I'm uncertain if they belong in my collection...or in my kitchen. The utilitarian handles suggest kitchen. The top one in the first picture below has a thin but solid blade, and bears a maker's mark of some kind (could simply say "made in China"). It also has some rectangular marks that could suggest what the steel once was part of (like when you can still discern the pattern that reveals a blade was made from an old file).

The bottom knife has a spine that is about 1/4" thick. It is shaped like a kukri blade, but the bottom edge is sharpened, which would be backwards on a kukri.

So, do these have a place in my collection, or my kitchen?

two cambodian knives

[shayde78]

Originally Posted by ausjulius

two cambodian knives

If I may ask, what features allow you to so confidently attribute these to Cambodia?

[Philip]

The knife on the bottom, in that image leading off this thread -- the one with the recurved edge and somewhat kukri-esque (kukroid?) profile -- I've seen the form on some Thai knives, and also on a SE Asian rattan splitting knife which, if memory serves correctly, is called a piso raut.

[Ian]

Originally Posted by Philip

The knife on the bottom, in that image leading off this thread -- the one with the recurved edge and somewhat kukri-esque (kukroid?) profile -- I've seen the form on some Thai knives, and also on a SE Asian rattan splitting knife which, if memory serves correctly, is called a piso raut.

Hi Philip,

Agree completely. That is a fairly common utility blade profile in Thailand and neighboring areas of Laos and Cambodia, and into parts of Vietnam. The spine of the blade is recurved and the edge is convex. The hilt style in the original post is found to a degree throughout the region, but the single iron ferrule is somewhat favored in Cambodia and Vietnam. The latter may be the most likely origin for this one.

Attached are pictures of one form of these knives and the bamboo "sheath" it is often carried in. This is a small bladed example to which the name pisau raut (rattan knife) has been applied. Larger blades of this form may be carried in woven basket sheaths or sheaths comprising two pieces of wood bound together with rattan strips or simply nailed together.

Ian.

[Tim Simmons]

Really cool scabbard.