Burmese Dha & Javanese Badik

[Aurangzeb]

No comments?

[Aurangzeb]

Strange

[Lew]

Originally Posted by Aurangzeb

Strange

As far as I can tell it may be the fluting in the blade? I am not that well schooled in badiks. It is also a holiday weekend so you may not get too many replies until Tuesday. Btw what is the difference between a badik and a sewar?

Lew

[Tim Simmons]

Hello Mark this knife has a similar outline as yours. I suspect there are more unusual things to come as the Burma veterans leave this world .

[kai]

Hello Mark,

This seems to be a nice Sekin blade from the Padang Highlands - so it's most certainly Sumatran rather than from Java. Please post more pics of the base of the blade as well as the fullers!

I'd guess this got rehilted & a new scabbard in Badek-fashion a while back.

Regards,
Kai

[Aurangzeb]

Hello Kai!

I have never heard of this type of knife. Very interesting! From the link below better pictures can be seen. Thanks!
Mark...

http://www.oriental-arms.com/item.php?id=1513

[Aurangzeb]

ASlmost forgot, what whoud the normal dressing for the sekin be?

[Aurangzeb]

Do I have the age of the Burmese Dha right? How whould it be worn?

[Mark]

Originally Posted by Aurangzeb

Do I have the age of the Burmese Dha right? How whould it be worn?

Yes, I would say you probably do. It is so hard to tell between a well-worn recent knife and a well-preserved old knife, but IMO the obviously hand-forged blade, coupled with the fine quality of the fittings (by which I mean it is neither something someone pounded out in a mountain village, nor a modern mass- or semi-mass-produced blade), point to that age more or less.

I haven't studied the dagger-length dha (dha-hmyaung) as much as the swords, but the style seems very universal in the entire region. From what I have seen recently, though, the Burman ones do not have guards, while the Thai ones tend to.

As for how it would have been worn -- no idea. In the north the Shan/Tai Yuan wear their dha-hmyaung suspended from their belt by a cord, a minature version of the baldric used for swords. However, I have never seen a cord hanger in this, more southern, style, which makes me suspect that it would be worn in a manner more like that of a keris or badik - tucked directly into the sash. I am, of course, open to correction.

[kai]

Hello Mark,

I have never heard of this type of knife.

If you're seriously into Indonesian blades, you need to get Albert van Zonneveld's book.

From the link below better pictures can be seen.

Good catch - it's rare to get not fully appraised stuff from Artzi...

what whoud the normal dressing for the sekin be?

Not too different - how's the fit of the scabbard? (Could be more slender/graceful.)

The traditional sekin hilt looks more like those rencong hilts without L-shaped bend (i.e. hulu puntung) and, especially, the somewhat intermediate hulu dandan. Although the sekin blade does not have that forged stem-ring, I think there could be a relationship between these weapons. However, the rencong hilts are all curved towards the back of the blade whereas the sekin hilt (apparently representing a very stylised bird's head) curves towards the edge similar as with a sewar.

Regards,
Kai

[Aurangzeb]

Hello Kai!

"Good catch - it's rare to get not fully appraised stuff from Artzi..."
I know when I first heard that Artzi might have made a mistake I was in a state of disbelief! It fits in the scabbard very nicely, not to tight not to loose, just right. Thanks for the information on the Sekin! I noticed that rencongs have a similer little decoration near the back of the blade.
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...hlight=rencong

Mark...

P.S.-I can only imagine how it got into it's most recent dressing!