collections thread- mandau

Gehazi

Gehazi

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Jun 30, 2013
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few orphans of my own I have picked up in the past months , but I did not want to crowd kronks thread-- basically a nice mandau and a cool old sword from bhutan:





well you can see who I picked these up from , the mandau is probably early 20th, with a nice silver collar instead of tar , not as nice as my other from artzi which is definitely late 19th and sea dayak.




and this is the bhutan short sword, something I would actually like HI to make





the rust patterns on the other side tell me it was some kind of "open scabbard" with two metal bands, or at least it had no corrosion in two bands, and the rest has a matte grey patina , while the shining side is pictured.

my camera has been broken or I would have taken fresh pictures, when it is I will ! I am bidding on a nice mandau right now as well, and i will post as soon as I know whether or not I won.

my head hunting collecting will continue, ad infinitum until the money runs out :D, still have not found a good club to start with, but i am always looking
 
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Nice mandau! Even has hair on the sheath. Havent seen one like that. I can see Bhakta making on of those Bhutans. Bhakta Bhutan...kinda rolls dont it?
 
the sword actually reminded me immediately of the chitlangi bowie, just without a curve-- the fullers are very "HI"
 
indeed, I have one !, you are right, it does favor the manjushree; a timeless design to be sure ! its just a double fullered manjushree
 
Two mandaus now... man you got a lot of spirit blades in that house.
 
I am kinda scared to post all the mandaus I have in the house ;o-- It is well over a dozen now, some are a little darker than others, all of them seem to be appeased with the incense and sword oil

a few more that dwell inside together , thinking of their old days of glory!




















chompy reprise



pretty sure this is a couple of devils kissin



check the beard



These eyes...seee all

several blades not pictured :eek:
 
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I knew you had a number of these, but I hadn't really pictured the entire set in my mind. Most impressive and all of them excellent examples too. Jelousy would make me look like a couple of those guys in the carvings :D
 
after I get a new camera or get mine fixed I am going to take pictures of the whole group-- I have a couple of my favorites that never got pictures taken all in all I think I have 16 mandau; the oldest one is from 1803 and is the last picture with sword and scabbard-- my next oldest is chompy" the teeth" mandau, at 1820-- the rest hover in the early 20th and late 19th but I have 2 that are clearly modern, with forgemarks probably made in the 70s or 80s
 
I still love the 5th one from the top. The one with the smaller almost black with age side knife. I just love the cutwork and the whole blade just seems extrodinarily well done. Very beautiful in a certain way.
 
if you look at the handle on this one you can see where the carvings once were, it is as if the entire outer layer was smashed or scraped off, then someone did their best to crudely outline the old carvings base, because you can see very fine , intact carvings along the handle, and many worn protrusions that were once very intricate.

also you can tell if the hair is human or not on these blades just by feeling it, as monkey hair and goat hair is often put on these to adorn them, but whenever you find the long, soft locks, you can be pretty sure it is human. these are more than likely sold adornments, while the hair on my 1803 mandau is more likely taken, almost no way to be sure I guess, I have thought about buying some extensions from asia and cheating to repair some of my older ones :D




I am quite fond of this one, it is very heavy, but lively, a brute



a fine bit of metal working there
 
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just got murdered on that auction site, like literally I am going to die soon after my family finds out I bought this, so goodbye everyone





 
They look really cool Gehazi, definitely a collectors piece :) they look expensive and have had a lot of time put into those carvings :eek:

I know nothing about these swords or any of the words/names that have been dropped haha completely new to me, but totally want one :D
 
you should read about them and the culture that surrounds them, very few human cultures are more alien in nature than that of the tribal animistic dayaks of borneo; the ritual life and purposes behind the tools, as well as the history of each particular blade are what make them so attractive to collect.

I don't think there is any society on earth that puts as much into its swords and blades as the dayak other than maybe ancient japan? the carvings on the hilt, sheath and steel are all reflective of the fact that they believed them to be objects filled with spirits, with their own place in that world, just the same way we always talk of hand made khukuri of HI "finding" their own owners, that is much the same way the dayaks felt about mandau ( from my understanding)--and each blade was said to effect the luck of the owner favorable or not; depending on how well accepted the owner was by the mandau

falling in love with collecting them after I researched the culture, The art style is just very interesting to me and magnetic, I hope I never stop being able to have a few more, or be on guard for when that special one shows up for sale.

I do think anyone interested in borneo tribal weapons would only be more interested in them if you read more about the history and culture that made them, much like with anything, especially in antiques or militaria.

If you are in aus you have very good access to the high quality mandau, but most of the great mandau are not to be found in malaysia or borneo anymore, they are found in dutch, english, french and australian collections because missionaries often traded for them -- my best mandau come from dutch missionary provenance-- they were attractive to collect for tourists during the british empire and early american empire of the 50s, so it is also very easy to find fakes-- they have fakes that are 140 years old or more -- so to say made for tourists, not made to hold spirits.

just let me know and I can point you to anything you need to collect them, the main antiques guys deal in them and then there are two tribal weapons/art specialists to check out ( google can point you as well because its generally best to search on the time frame, I know of two high quality ones for sale right now, and a very very affordable one of good quality at another place-- they dont take paypal or I would have already ! lol) that being said this one cost me a bunch, just about retail that you would find at antiques dealers-- but the good mandau demand good prices. like with anything
 
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I'll read up about them sarvo :) very interesting blades indeed. Love weapons with deep culture and history behind them, not only do you learn about the time, the people, and creators of the weapon, you can hold a physical piece of history...and you can't really beat that.

I'll keep my eye out for them now on my travels, if I happen to stumble upon any I'll hit you up about it ;)
 
i was looking for a bhutanese 'ban' short sword like yours for a long time. finally found one this summer. wood grip slightly damaged, as is the scabbard.
View attachment 494435

my dyak sword is a bit less decorative, plain & functional. not the most balanced of my horde.
View attachment 494434

another slightly more decorative curved version. bit touristy but has a distal tapered razor sharp blade.
View attachment 494436

they're called mandau when they have a small utility knife with a long thin grip sheathed on the reverse side of the scabbard. the grips have distinctive paisley-like carvings, the best are ivory or stag (mine are both wood) and frequently decorated with goat hair (sometimes human). the scabbard can also be decorated with teeth (human) or boar tusks.
 
Gehazi you have an amazing collection, thank you for sharing it with us. I must say I have never witnessed a blade of any kind that looked as 'alive' as your Mandau,

it's almost kind of creepy, they give off a somewhat foreboding aura. They almost look haunted or cursed and I say this with no insult intended but reverence and

much respect. To me it's almost seems as they have their own soul and I've actually only felt this about only two other blade types, Nepali Khukuri and Japanese

Nihonto.

Again thanks for sharing!
 
could not agree more aleous, I keep all my mandau in a very specific place-- following the "war shrine" idea; I keep them together, ask them to be calm and burn incense around them-- they say a mandau shows its disapproval by delivering horrible luck to the owner, I have had decent luck since starting my collection, so I am guessing I have some approval from them.
they are given at every event in the culture, as gifts and symbols of power and family-- they are as highly prized definitely by the culture as any you mentioned

They are very much in the same traditional concept of "blade as soul" I actually think the japanese cultures and dayak cultures ( like all in sE asia) probably had a common ancestor, and the focus on the spirit of the weapon seems to be shared by all

also my really nice one towards the top with a silver collar is a proper jimpul style but still a mandau because it has sideknife-- but if the blade is not concave and convex on either side it is not proper mandau either, a mandau must be a slab of steel that can only get a cut one direction, I read something about how awkward using one is if you are not a dayak, and another story about a young dayak practicing with his, and cutting both his own legs off by using the blade wrong( if you cut the wrong direction; or the wrong way, the kinetics throws the blade back at you)-- lots of sea dayaks used more saber like blades or jimpul, with a centered cutting edge more like a traditional sword.

my understanding of their art is they sought to delimb or decapitate with each swing, and during ww2 british troops were amazed by the dayaks ability to take off heads with one swing, while doing insurgency on the japanese occupation
 
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Interesting Gehazi, So the shape of the blade forces the cut to basically counter-balance the swing to enable a long straight cut which would result in the ability to delimb or decapitate. Where as if you swing with the shape of the blade instead of against it, it would force the cut into a very tight curve exiting much earlier and forcing it back into your own path. Since each sword is hand made, each one must have a different amount of swing necessary to balance the force of the cut, so your blade is unique to your swing and picking up someone else's sword without learning that blade could be a dangerous choice depending on how similar it is to your own.
 
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