• The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
    Price is $300 $250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
    Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.

  • Today marks the 24th anniversary of 9/11. I pray that this nation does not forget the loss of lives from this horrible event. Yesterday conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was murdered, and I worry about what is to come. Please love one another and your family in these trying times - Spark

Dayaks in Kayaks? Parang Nabour

B

Bill Marsh

Joined
Mar 26, 2002
Messages
1,861
Well, they weren't really in kayaks, but I like the sound. These parang nabours were the swords of the Sea Dayaks. Feared sailors, headhunters and pirates. This sword is possibly as old as early 1800s. 29" long.

The climate in Borneo and Sarawak is tropical. Metal rusts quickly and wood rots. So don't belive all you hear on eBay.

I believe that most of the good stuff has been taken out of Indonesia. Very, very poor countries with a few very, very rich. The rich ain't selling and the poor have already sold.

This piece like many I buy have been in private collections somewhere other than Indonesia. The best Indonesian antiques are in USA, Germany, Netherlands and England. The collection this sword came from has been in the USA since 1890.
 
Wow, Bill, the curve of that edge sucks you right down to the point, doesn't it? The phrasing may not be PC, but it isn't meant to be dirty.
 
Aardvark said:
Wow, Bill, the curve of that edge sucks you right down to the point, doesn't it? The phrasing may not be PC, but it isn't meant to be dirty.
Click to expand...

I understand and agree. This sword probably took a few heads. Fun to run into an old chopper like this.

Very unusual to find an old scabbard with it. The wood is soft and wears easily. Often participants would drop their scabbards when they went into battle to keep them out of their way. No good tripping over your own scabbard!

Sometimes they also used the scabbard as a parrying device, to shield themselves from the enemy blade.

In either case scabbards had a much shorter life than the blades.
 
That sword looks like a native's copy of an English hunting sword from the 1700's, or maybe German..
Shell guard, etc..
Interesting
 
Those appeal to me more than other swords I have seen in a while. Beauties.
Romantic in a way, but a cold reality underlying.
 
Bill, any chance that you are gonna etch this blade? I pretty much think I would ifen it were mine.:p ;)
Pulling up the closeup pic and looking at what I'm thinking may be forging flaws I wouldn't even give it second thought; just get out the etching materials and go for it.:D :cool: ;)
It does appear to be a homogenous steel doesn't it?
 
Yvsa said:
Bill, any chance that you are gonna etch this blade? I pretty much think I would ifen it were mine.:p ;)
Pulling up the closeup pic and looking at what I'm thinking may be forging flaws I wouldn't even give it second thought; just get out the etching materials and go for it.:D :cool: ;)
It does appear to be a homogenous steel doesn't it?
Click to expand...

Yvsa,

I may clean it a bit more, but probably not etch it. I have cleaned antique sword blades in the past and almost universally regretted it. I like the marks and dings. Each seems to tell a story. Really cleaned up and they begin to look wrong. These are not new.

I do keep my HI Khuks clean except for a few users. I also try to keep ALL blades oiled.

Sometimes I look at my wife, Anne and see the laugh lines, the wrinkles on her face (mine are much worse), and I think of the fun times we had and know there are more coming.

I would not trade that 58 year old face for a hundred teenagers with perfect complexions. The antique swords are like that also. Their beauty lies in the marks and dings that time and countless stories have left. I would not disturb that patina, nor hers.

We have a sign over our door that says, "Grow old with me, the best of life is yet to be."

I don't know what tomorrow will bring that could be better than today. All I know is that we are having a very good time today.

As long as she will put up with my 62 year old grizzled visage, I am happy.

Is this a great world or what?
 
Bill, I think the parang nabur was primarily a Malay weapon that was subsequently adopted by the Iban (= "Sea Dayaks"), for a couple reasons. The name is Malay. The blade shape more closely resembles other Malay parangs as well as similar blades from ethnic groups on continental Asia. Of the parang nabur that I've seen (at least), they tend to have decoration more in line with Malay than Iban aesthetics. Most importantly, in old illustrations the Iban are almost always shown with their signature weapon -- the mandau 'headhunter' which the Malays call parang ihlang 'jungle knife' -- and not the parang nabur. Also, I don't believe that the parang nabur is found among the Land Dayaks, which we might expect if it had been a definitive Dayak weapon.

I infer from this that the parang nabur probably wasn't a true headhunting sword in the sense that the mandau was, and was probably a late borrowing from the Malays at the time when the Malays (with British help) were imposing permanent control over the Iban's homeland in Kalimantan. So, while in no way making them less cool, the parang nabur probably wasn't the romantic headhunter's blade that it's often made out to be.
 
Ruel, Great description and good information. I really appreciate your expertise. I consider you an authority.

Kis, Thanks for the rather chilling account.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top