Is this a siraui?

[Ian]

Detlef,

I just noticed that the one that slipped by us last night has a brass hilt of similar form to the bone one on my example in post #21 of this thread. Maybe this is a common Nias style. I am not sufficiently familiar with Nias hilts to know whether it is common. What do you think?

Ian.

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by Ian

I just noticed that the one that slipped by us last night has a brass hilt of similar form to the bone one on my example in post #21 of this thread. Maybe this is a common Nias style. I am not sufficiently familiar with Nias hilts to know whether it is common. What do you think?

Hi Ian,

very good possible. This knives have a similiar blade shape like the so called Si euli, see here: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...highlight=euli, I think that only the first and third piece are old/antique examples, the one in up is very similar like our examples and the third has maybe a recent scabbard, but this I can only guess by pictures.
Here was dicussed another one: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...highlight=euli
Look also by Zonneveld on page 123-124.
The only difference I can judge is the scabbard so I think that the upper one from DaveS is a similar pisau like our ones.

Best regards,
Detlef

[kai]

Hello Ian,

I just noticed that the one that slipped by us last night has a brass hilt of similar form dto the bone one on my example in post #21 of this thread. Maybe this is a common Nias style. I am not sufficiently familiar with Nias hilts to know whether it is common.

I don't recognize this as one of the well established hilt types. Having said that I have to stipulate that there are not that many really old piso Nias around.

Your bone-hilted example seems to be the youngest; I'd guess it's post-WW2 (and probably not early in that period).

The second brass-hilted example that you got might be earlier but I'm not going to hold my breath... (niodanga wana)

The first brass-hilted piece has an interesting pommel (possibly alluding to the stylized southern Sumatran keris hilt?) and I'd like to see more pics after you receive it (and maybe some gentle cleaning)!

Detlef's wooden hilt might be the oldest among those shown here. Still, it's most probably from the first half of the 20th century; the hilt type (based on the Sumatran/Aceh hulu bawar - itself an extant survivor of early hilts from Java) is a well-established type also known from Si Euli.

Regards,
Kai

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by kai

Detlef's wooden hilt might be the oldest among those shown here.

Just for clarification, it's from horn.

[DaveF]

Hi Ian,

I saw the pisau Nias that you've just acquired on ebay at the start of last month. It was advertised as a "Dayak Warrior Sword/knife". From research on this site I thought it looked more like a Nias piece so I messaged the seller to ask whether it may be Nias. He didn't reply, but immediately changed the description to "Nias Warrior Sword/knife". As a still novice collector I lacked confidence in my own assessment and decided to swerve it, even though I thought it looked really interesting. So, I'm delighted to see that someone who really does know what they're talking about was happy to acquire it as a pisau Nias! It just shows what a fantastic resource this site is. Long may it flourish.

[Ian]

Dave,

I'm very pleased to hear you find the Forum helpful for your collecting. That is certainly one of its aims, to provide knowledge to collectors at all stages of their development and experience. Keep reading and keep posting, Dave.

Regards,

Ian.

[Sajen]

Here another Nias knife I've bought recently. Pictures from the seller. Maybe not extremely old but with laminated blade.

[Ian]

Nice one, Detlef.

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by Ian

Nice one, Detlef.

Thank you Ian! But have liked to get the one in post #28!

[kai]

Hello Detlef,

This is a kind of secondary sword (usually worn behind the balato). The blade looks promising - please let us know the blade thickness once it arrives. As you already suggested, the fittings seem younger (mid-20th c.?) to me, too.

It's a known pattern with pretty much identical style compared to the small EDC knives; there even may be a (possibly more recent?) continuum of sizes: Ian's from post #24 seems to be intermediate with traditional tip and apparently rather strong blade?

However, most of the knives are really small and the swords more in the balato size range (give or take a few inches) while the intermediate size-range usually gets covered by regular si euli (a damaged si euli scabbard is easy to recycle into a knife scabbard though).

Regards,
Kai

[Sajen]

Thank you Kai, soon as it arrived I will take new pictures and post the exact dimensions.

Regards,
Detlef