[Andrew Winston]

I posted this recently on an SFI thread, but thought I'd cross post a photo of it for discussion here, if anyone is interested.

The measurements are on my office computer, so I'll update this thread later.

This is, I believe, a late Ayutthaya (1350-1767) period sword from Siam (Thailand). This, along with a substantially similar mate owned by a colleague of mine, are the oldest examples of this form I've seen.

The blade, with its distinctive "sheepsfoot" tip, demonstrates laminate construction, as well as evidence of differential hardening. The handle fittings are well-patinated iron, with extensive gold koftgari work. The grips are a type of heavy textile which appears to be well treated with pitch. Unlike most modern (i.e. 19th century and newer) dha, this seems to have a full tang.

Overall, this is an extremely well constructed, well balanced weapon clearly made for use. Given the quality of the blade and fittings, I'm comfortable speculating this sword was owned by someone of prestige and wealth.

Cheers,
Andrew

EDIT: Here's a link to the photo:
http://forums.swordforum.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=299695

[Russ Ellis]

Interesting, the blade looks oddly crude (probably because of the sheep's foot tip) but then it has that nice handle attached. What are the more common type of tips that you have seen?

[Andrew Winston]

Hi Russ. Most dha blades are fairly crude. However, this one is actually quite fine, if simple. Straight, well tempered, minimal inclusions. The crude appearance may be due to the age of the blade, and the fact I've left the patination intact. I'm not certain of the provenance yet, but I'm loathe to tamper with this one as it may turn out to be an important example, if it is, indeed, as old as I hope.

Philip Tom polished one side of this sword's mate, and it apparantly revealed some very nice activity in the metal, including a true "hamon" complete with nie and nioi.

As for tip shapes, these really do come in a wide variety. I've seen flat, spear-shaped, spatulate (rounded), scalloped, and "pointy". As these are, primarily, slashing weapons, tip geometry doesn't generally affect use. Flat tips are often seen on Kachin dha from Northern Burma, and are probably closely related to the Sword Dao of the Naga hilltribes. The flat tip would be well suited to use as both a tool and weapon. Shan dha appear with a variety of tips. The example I posted above is in the Shan form.

Here are some nice tip shots:

[Russ Ellis]

Very cool, I think I like the "pointy" ones the best. I really do like this type of sword and will have to pick one up at some point. The only thing is that production versions seem to be rather hard to come by. It appears that you mostly own antiques?

[Andrew Winston]

Russ:

The bulk of my collection is antique. However, I did have John Lundemo make me a nice, big pattern-weld dha. I also broke down and ordered the "Banshee" from Hanwei, which has recieved mixed review. For $100.00, though, I thought I'd give it a shot. If nothing else, it will make a good hedge-trimmer.

Valiant Co. has a dha available with a plain blade, and a "damascus" blade. I ordered the damascus example. Don' t hold out much hope that it's of very good construction, but it was interesting. A Thai company called "Aranyik" (after a famous Siamese city known for sword smithing) was producing nice, solid Thai darbs, but I believe they are out of business. Some of these will occasionally appear on eBay, and are worth picking up.

If you're looking for a dha to use, I'd stay away from antiques. I'd also avoid the flood of contemporary dha/darbs appearing on eBay. Most of those are poorly made for the tourist trade. They first started appearing, to my knowlege, during the Vietnam war, as many of them were picked up by GI's in Thailand. A good primer on what to look out for can be seen here: http://www.vikingsword.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001291.html

I'm pushing Gus to make a dha blade, as well.

Andrew

[Russ Ellis]

I remember those Aranyik guys and thought about ordering from them, but their prices were so low I thought that the quality must be the same. Drat!

[Andrew Winston]

I know what you mean! I passed over these until it was too late. Needless to say, I've since seen examples sell on eBay for more than the factory charged. Rats.