collections thread- mandau

Nice Igorots. But I think they need some Sterling wire inlay in those hafts ;)
 
they look great JW, no inlay necessary but I did love that hawk you made :D -- I love these more though , really exciting !
 







progress on the short dha by JW, full post on JW's sub forum which shows all my pictures of this one together-- amazing work , will be right beside my antiques as I already said

also have this one on the way ; this is another jimpul , not a true mandau, no scabbard, no side knife, sea dayak, fine blade though with good ironwork , that I think is authentic.-- a good way to tell that the resin plug is original ( for those interested in collecting a mandau) I understand the yellowish tint tells you it has beeswax and pine resin and is not shellack or a modern reproduction, an intact tar ferrule is pretty desirable for these but is one of the easiest parts to restore, as mentioned with shellack ( for display obviously, as shellack is not good enough to hold blade to handle during work)



 
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Thats beautiful man! Pattern welded eh! I didnt say damascus Bawanna. Explain the AAA dudes? Is that a Gehazi inscription? Also the antiques used pine tar and beeswax? Interesting. I have tried making adhesive with ash and pine tar and never really got the mix right. I havent tried beeswax. Very nice filework:thumbup: I like everything about that blade. Whats the OA length?
 
ndoghouse said:
Thats beautiful man! Pattern welded eh! I didnt say damascus Bawanna. Explain the AAA dudes? Is that a Gehazi inscription? Also the antiques used pine tar and beeswax? Interesting. I have tried making adhesive with ash and pine tar and never really got the mix right. I havent tried beeswax. Very nice filework:thumbup: I like everything about that blade. Whats the OA length?
Click to expand...

That's the " 3 girls hill" mark- I did it like a bedouh (sp?) on a persian sword.
image.jpg
 
perfection jw, could not love it more than I do, can't say enough good about it, you are a master sir! all I need now is a bookie musket and side arm to go with my swords and I could be a victorian monster hunter, huzzah.( need some steel bibles or something to complete the look, bookie get to work on it!)

really liked this pair of strange blades, finally committed to buying

they are like a mix of naga dao and burmese dha, very strange mix of styles, but very well made blades from the look-- very thick all the way to tip

the swords in question



spine at grip




just really striking blades-- hilts are set with south indian coins from 1906-- these may find their way to you JW for some love

ndog-- my understanding is that the mixture requires damar pine tar, beeswax and lime , or some kind of concrete mix -- I have not experimented yet with the mixtures, but I do plan on it, to restore the tar plugs on my mandau that are in poorer condition. mandau seem to be the most refurbished antiques because of all the easily broken things that are on them, but that is mostly speculation, but I have seen many signs in those that I own of heavy restoration work, not that I mind, but it has made me interested in the same.
 
few more additions, either down payments made or actually acquired---so blue can see my stuff !!!


a payakun from the murut of borneo





a pedang lurus with european blade and silver handle






an assam head hunting dao ( I think)--this sword is enormous, about 3 feet long)-- got this one from the auction site






also finally an actual mandau-- one of the nicer ones in my collection; though not in hand yet, is definitely going to be mine in another month :D; this will be my first from arjan after looking at his place for a long time.








I bought this chaps entire collection of mandau, almost all from the 1940s one actually imo from the 1700s( the painted scabbard one)- this is the last of the group, they are all rusty because the collector did not really care about weapons-- so I got a really good deal on the lot, will just need to carefully restore them as best I can.

 
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So much incredibleness in this thread... You've really taken things to the next level!

I've seen a few mandaus go cheaply lately but they're the painted kind which I understand are just tourist pieces
 
Welcome back Blue, Good to see you again!

Wow Gehazi. You are going WAY out there with these newest ones. Not a one of them I wouldn't love to own. Specially love that pair with the flared ends. Just amazing. What detailed info do you have about the Lurus and the dao/dha pair?
 
from the seller on the pedang lurus:

unusual Pedang Lurus from Java, Indonesia. The slender blade of hollow triangular blade 26 inches long. The handle is beautifully chased silver. The scabbard is wood covered with red fabric and mounted with chased silver locket and chape. Total length 32 inches. Good condition. Nicely patinated blade with some edge nicks. The chape is shortened and repaired. The red fabric may be a later addition. The blade might be a secondary use of an early European sword, but both the handle and the scabbard are made to fit this blade. Very unusual sword.


on the pair of fighting dha/dao--- they are actually a right and left handed sword, one is heavier and longer by a hair than the other, both are in the style of the burmese dha, but nobody has really seen a set with so much flare -- the seller put this influence down to the kora sword from nepal, and assumed the function of the flare was to use the swords to entangle opponent , I personally think it is more likely that a person familiar with the naga, or a naga himself had these made,-- the flare's purpose being to add weight for a chop; the style reminds me of the head hunting swords from tribes in india like the naga-- I tend to think these were made for someone in a city , rather than being "tribal made"-- but they can be reliably dated to 1906 due to the use of the coins in the grip.-- but again as you can see with description above, if a seller has "very strange sword" somewhere in the description, I probably want it lol.-- and I am already having JWB make me a new set of these based on my old ones shav, so you can actually own a set ! as I am sure after JW figures out how to reproduce them he could do it again.
 
one thing to consider on the indonesian weapons, like pedangs and keris, the owners would frequently change their 'clothes', gold, silver, suasa, jewels would come and go (to the money lender) as their fortunes ebbed and flowed. the blades were what was important, the clothes, like ours were to honour and compliment the blade and could be changed for important occasions to more expensive scabbards, grips, bolsters (mendak), scabbard covers, etc.

in thailand and burmah, it was the other way round, the fittings were what showed your status, the blade was of lesser importance for the average person and many are quite roughly finished. the decorated ones with good grips (and matching scabbards) are for quite important ranking people and were generally permanently mounted together with cutler's cement, unlike keris and pedangs which normally are a press fit with a wrap of cloth (or hair) around a round tang to make it fit the oversized hole in the grip & no cement).

the dyaks ornamented everything, grip (cemented on), blade, scabbard, their own clothes, hats, and themselves,
 
me too nepki, it is actually my very first and only of this type, from that tribe. maybe the only one I ever get, as these are apparently pretty rare; I fell in love with the geometric patterns on the scabbard , plus the hair additions , more than the blade, but I do like its look

awesome info kronck, very interesting how each culture expressed status through the blades and how it changed from place to place-- and stayed the same in other ways-- its all pretty much why I love antiques and history, just thinking of how it all folds together blows me away. it is why I try to get them when I can as well-- also why HI appeals so much with its more traditional methods
 
it is indeed human hair with beads ; one of the main reasons I picked it up
 
pretty much all of JW's work is amazing gurkha(if he was as well funded as raven armory, I am betting he could match simon's skill given the same resources.)

I am going to work with him next year after we finish the dha set to make a modern mandau and a few other ethnographic blades with some helpful features from other cultures-- just gotta save up the cash :D--- and as I said before the stuff JW makes for me is going right alongside any of my classics in display , I doubt anyone would be able to tell they were not antiques just because the skill is obvious.

I hope I can muster the funds to get him to reproduce my favorite strange antiques from my collection, so that I may have a set to actually attack rogue watermelons with.
 
Have to really watch those rogue watermelons! Having a JW made repro of some of those would indeed be a heck of a lot of fun!
 
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