- Joined
- Aug 16, 2011
- Messages
- 1,386
I've had so much fun buying cheap "ethnic" knives from SE asia that I went and did it again. I saw this bad boy on Ebay, described as a "THAI ETHNIC MOUNTAIN TRIBE DECORATIVE KNIFE". 12 inches long total. And since he was selling 10 of them, I could assume it was brand new and not an antique.
My first thought was, if it's decorative that probably means fake. Was it made in a factory in China, or was it made locally in Thailand? Then I noticed the cross hatching near the tang and thought it must be made from an old file, and therefore legit. So I bought it, and it arrived today.
Now that I've done the research I should have done before I bought this, I know it's what's called a dha. Dha's are used in Thailand, Burma and surrounding areas. They're usually as long as a sword but they also make small dagger sized ones. They differ in design depending on what ethnic group made it. There's a good article about them here The style of this one is more like a Burmese dha than a Thailand one. Plus the seller told me it took awhile for his dealer to get these knives because they may or may not be smuggled over the border. So I think it's safe to call this a Burmese dha albeit definitely one made for tourists. I don't think it could possibly have been made for actual use as a weapon or even as part of an outfit since it's so shoddily made.
The crosshatching is actually something called Koftgari. They heat the blade up with a torch and then cut the crosshatching with a hard knife or chisel. Then they take some silver or copper or gold wire and press it into the crosshatching to make the pattern you see. Since the steel is still hot, it sticks to the grooves. Then they burnish the whole thing with a stone. Because the silver is rubbed into the notches, it won't wear off easily. Normally they're much more artfully executed than on my dha. You can see a video of the process here.
[video=youtube;IIBpSBVDca4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIBpSBVDca4[/video]
To call the workmanship of this knife "crude" would be a generous understatement. Everything's hand made, though. Here's a close up of the rope pattern on the sheath. It looks like they soldered an actual wire to the sheath, you can see at the top where they twisted the ends and snipped it off. I think you'd call the pattern work on the metal bands Repousse. They basically hammer a pattern out on the back of the metal sheet, which makes it bulge out, then they take a nail to the front of the sheet to add detail. Again, it's usually done much nicer than this.
I especially like how the master craftsman attached the throat of the sheath with a couple of nails.
It looks like somebody gave it a once over with a buffing pad when they finished, you can still see the hazing on the metal where they attempted to polish it. I haven't tested to see if it takes a patina, so I don't know if it's stainless or carbon steel. The fit and finish is awful, obviously, but it does feel sturdy enough and it's definitely sharp enough to poke a hole in somebody. Overall I do like the thing even though it looks like it was assembled by a child laborer. It seems to have been made with traditional methods, just by someone who didn't have the skill or cared enough to do it well.
My first thought was, if it's decorative that probably means fake. Was it made in a factory in China, or was it made locally in Thailand? Then I noticed the cross hatching near the tang and thought it must be made from an old file, and therefore legit. So I bought it, and it arrived today.
Now that I've done the research I should have done before I bought this, I know it's what's called a dha. Dha's are used in Thailand, Burma and surrounding areas. They're usually as long as a sword but they also make small dagger sized ones. They differ in design depending on what ethnic group made it. There's a good article about them here The style of this one is more like a Burmese dha than a Thailand one. Plus the seller told me it took awhile for his dealer to get these knives because they may or may not be smuggled over the border. So I think it's safe to call this a Burmese dha albeit definitely one made for tourists. I don't think it could possibly have been made for actual use as a weapon or even as part of an outfit since it's so shoddily made.
The crosshatching is actually something called Koftgari. They heat the blade up with a torch and then cut the crosshatching with a hard knife or chisel. Then they take some silver or copper or gold wire and press it into the crosshatching to make the pattern you see. Since the steel is still hot, it sticks to the grooves. Then they burnish the whole thing with a stone. Because the silver is rubbed into the notches, it won't wear off easily. Normally they're much more artfully executed than on my dha. You can see a video of the process here.
[video=youtube;IIBpSBVDca4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIBpSBVDca4[/video]
To call the workmanship of this knife "crude" would be a generous understatement. Everything's hand made, though. Here's a close up of the rope pattern on the sheath. It looks like they soldered an actual wire to the sheath, you can see at the top where they twisted the ends and snipped it off. I think you'd call the pattern work on the metal bands Repousse. They basically hammer a pattern out on the back of the metal sheet, which makes it bulge out, then they take a nail to the front of the sheet to add detail. Again, it's usually done much nicer than this.
I especially like how the master craftsman attached the throat of the sheath with a couple of nails.
It looks like somebody gave it a once over with a buffing pad when they finished, you can still see the hazing on the metal where they attempted to polish it. I haven't tested to see if it takes a patina, so I don't know if it's stainless or carbon steel. The fit and finish is awful, obviously, but it does feel sturdy enough and it's definitely sharp enough to poke a hole in somebody. Overall I do like the thing even though it looks like it was assembled by a child laborer. It seems to have been made with traditional methods, just by someone who didn't have the skill or cared enough to do it well.
they are not pulling their punches. some of it, especially near the end