Faceted Tips on Chinese Swords? (Split from HOS Catalogue thread)

Mark · 17th May 2007, 05:59 PM

There is an excellent reference on Chinese bronze weapons, which unfortunately is hard to find and very expensive (it was published in Taiwan, no ISBN):

Wang, C.H. with Li Xueqin, Yang Hong, & Ma Chengyuan. Shang and Zhou Chinese Bronze Weaponry: The C.H. Wang Collection. Published by the Author, Taipei, Taiwan 1993.

A number of the swords shown have a facetted edge and tip construction. My guess is that this was primarily to leave the central part of the blade as thick and strong as possible, but the early steel weapons were in most cases versions of existing bronze weapons, so this might be an area to look for the genesis of the facetted tip in later jian.

You also can see this in some of the bronze weapons in the History of Steel catalogue, for example #60 (spear head), #72 (Warring States era jian). The facetting right at the tip is not pronounced, but I think it is there. A bronze Han Dynasty ring-pommel knife has essentionally the form of the later ring-pommel swords, but facetting on the tip is not visible (at least to me).

17th May 2007, 05:59 PM	#15
Mark Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 987	There is an excellent reference on Chinese bronze weapons, which unfortunately is hard to find and very expensive (it was published in Taiwan, no ISBN): Wang, C.H. with Li Xueqin, Yang Hong, & Ma Chengyuan. Shang and Zhou Chinese Bronze Weaponry: The C.H. Wang Collection. Published by the Author, Taipei, Taiwan 1993. A number of the swords shown have a facetted edge and tip construction. My guess is that this was primarily to leave the central part of the blade as thick and strong as possible, but the early steel weapons were in most cases versions of existing bronze weapons, so this might be an area to look for the genesis of the facetted tip in later jian. You also can see this in some of the bronze weapons in the History of Steel catalogue, for example #60 (spear head), #72 (Warring States era jian). The facetting right at the tip is not pronounced, but I think it is there. A bronze Han Dynasty ring-pommel knife has essentionally the form of the later ring-pommel swords, but facetting on the tip is not visible (at least to me).