Good feeling?

josh stout · 11th February 2008, 04:48 PM

[QUOTE=Jim McDougall]Josh,
The comment on the Chinese painting blades red that are no longer in use is most interesting. Could you elaborate a bit on that? Some time ago I was trying to discover more on the color red being used on weapons....QUOTE]

Sorry that is about all I know. Chinese villagers often paint over a blade rather than oiling it. The ones I have were done with silver paint, one on a folded blade and one on a practice/performance piece. Phillip and Scott discussed the occasional piece with red paint, and I think there may be a Taoist component, but you would have to ask them. Tibetan things often have traces of red on the fittings or scabbard, but that would have been part of the original decoration and related to Buddhist iconography.
Josh

Mark · 11th February 2008, 05:42 PM

Not a red-painted blade, but this poor fellow had a gloppy coating of red paint on the scabbard & handle, clearly applied recently, as it slopped over onto the fittings. It is a Shan style dha, from eastern Burma or northern Thailand.

Here is another one (Kachin this time, from Northern Burma), where the red might have been original.

No idea what the red signifies, though.

11th February 2008, 05:42 PM	#2
Mark Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 987	Not a red-painted blade, but this poor fellow had a gloppy coating of red paint on the scabbard & handle, clearly applied recently, as it slopped over onto the fittings. It is a Shan style dha, from eastern Burma or northern Thailand. Here is another one (Kachin this time, from Northern Burma), where the red might have been original. No idea what the red signifies, though. Last edited by Mark; 9th June 2008 at 03:19 PM.

11th February 2008, 04:48 PM	#1
josh stout Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 407	[QUOTE=Jim McDougall]Josh, The comment on the Chinese painting blades red that are no longer in use is most interesting. Could you elaborate a bit on that? Some time ago I was trying to discover more on the color red being used on weapons....QUOTE] Sorry that is about all I know. Chinese villagers often paint over a blade rather than oiling it. The ones I have were done with silver paint, one on a folded blade and one on a practice/performance piece. Phillip and Scott discussed the occasional piece with red paint, and I think there may be a Taoist component, but you would have to ask them. Tibetan things often have traces of red on the fittings or scabbard, but that would have been part of the original decoration and related to Buddhist iconography. Josh