HI Yataghans

S

Steven F

Joined
Oct 12, 1999
Messages
1,237
A thread was started in what is now the HI Archives about getting Uncle Bill to ask the kamis to try their hand at making yataghans, and several orders were placed. I might very well like to get on the list; but, first, I'd like a better idea of what a yataghan looks like. Can anyone direct me to a site where I can get a look at one? Thanks in advance.
 
You deserve an answer and there were several pictures and links in the recent posts to the archives.

In fact, I want to post a pic of a burmese dha that I think looks sexier.

Problem is that when it comes to computers I'm not illiterate but I do still move my lips when I read.

SAFETY THREAD moved here first, then I'll get to the rest.
 
A Burmese or Thai Dha would also be cool! I hope it ay be a reality. I have played around with both styles of swords, and I am impressed. The Yataghan and Dha works very well with the Serrada Escrima style that I practice.
 
A Burmese or Thai Dha? What are you guys doing to me? I'm trying to learn how to budget now that I am graduating, and here you guys go with some more things to tempt me with. Arghhh!!! I sure hope I get a good job when I get out so I can buy all the khukuris, dhas, katanas, barongs, and whatever else come up that I may want.

Christian
 
I have 2 Burmese dhas in my collection; it's a very efficient and aesthetic profile, and extremely well-balanced.

I think the dha would be a worthy addition to the HI catalog, if there's enough interest.
 
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As much as I like all the new offerings from the bladesmiths of today I still have a fondness for old knives (Cattaragus 225Q and the like) and especially the knives of different ethnic origins.

I have always been fascinated by the swords, daggers and knives of old. The comic strip "Prince Valiant" was always one of my favorites since old knives and other edged weapons were often pictured in some nice detail.

I could go crazier than I am with buying knives from all over the world.
Th Canary Island knives are some I have been lookingat lately.
They have beautifully detailed handles all in a similar shape and the blades are hammered Very Thin!!
They certainly aren't sharpened prybars!!
I would dearly love to have a really good example of one.
The problem is that they are on the expensive side. One of the less expensive ones I priced was about $150.00 - $175.00 and I can't justify that amount for something I couldn't use often.

If we all had unlimited budgets just where would we be? I can see it now!!
Not only would we have very extant collections, but we could all move close to one another and set up a security line all around the place.
redface.gif

The guards could carry the very latest in Assault weapons and a Big Sword and Knife as well. (VBESEG)


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>>>>---¥vsa---->®

"Know your own bone, gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it again."

'Thoreau'

Khukuri FAQ
 
Yvsa, if I had an unlimited budget, I would have to add another room to my home to have a place to store and display all the khuks I would buy. Now, many of the khuks I have (not that I have that many) I have to store in a trunk -- partly because I don't have the space to properly display them, and partly because I don't want my better half to see how much money I spend on something that we really can't afford. Yep, being afflicted with HIKV would be lot less of a problem if I had an unlimited budget.
 
On closer look, the dha in the post above is really pretty straight of a blade. Must have been the curve on the point that made me think it's blade had a curve to it.

Here's a Vietnamese Dai Dao that's closer - a hand-and-a-half handle called the Cochin Saber, that I like the looks of.

http://swordforum.com/swords/vietnamese/swordsofviet.html

It's the one in the middle, not the top or bottom. Only problem appears to be that ugly yellow wood rear part of the handle, but look closer at it. It is NOT wood!

Anyway, make a sword generic to the burmese/thai/vietnamese types yet still close to the lines of the katana or nodachi. Someone in the archived thread on this mentioned something similar about calling it a dha or dao. ( Was that you Tom? ) That way it wouldn't have to be a perfect replica of a nihonto. To me the point of the whole project is to make it similar in size, style, and feel to a katana or nodachi but a real, useable, functional one and not some fake tourist copy. Or a functional yataghan. Or a patang. Hey, I bought a six pound kora - you ought to be able to sell me something light and lethal like any of the ones mentioned in an instant.

[This message has been edited by Rusty (edited 03-26-2000).]
 
Pirate:

Go to the HI website ( link is signature to all of Uncle Bill's posts ). Click on the menu's "swords" button and look at the one on the far right, the kora. Like a chinese DADAO turned upside down.

The situation reminds me of the story of the Viking sax. Blade basically shaped like a long machete. One side of blade dead straight spine unsharpened, other side edged and curved near point. Except that with the sax, you can find two from the same area and one will have the curved side sharpened and the other the straight side sharpened. Go figure.
 
I'll wait and see what turns out. If the Nepali, Sikkim, Bhutanese,Myanmar peoples and Thais share a heritage, I'd think that those designs might be more meaningful and easier understood than the nihonto blades even if they seem nearly identical sometimes.
 
I'd love a yataghan. The problem, though, as I see it, is that the yataghan must be reasonably thin...it's got a reinforced back, but the thing is basically a saber...and it may not be such a simple thing to produce a GOOD thin moderately flexible blade of this type using the hardening/tempering techniques of the Nepalese kamis. That technique, as I understand and visualize it, depends absolutely on a thick blade, which can rebleed heat to the waterquenched edge to draw the temper, after the edge-hardening...that's why it's so hard to duplicate the technique, Bill, and why you failed in your try at it...takes years of developing fine judgement to balance hardness on edge versus softness/toughness of the back. This also accounts for the way in which khukri points and cho areas are softer...they're thinner, so the blade heat has a greater tempering effect. To make a good yataghan blade, a different mode of tempering and hardening would be needed. I don't know what Asian non-Japanese smiths did...but the one yata I've ever handled (Turkish/Caucasian, I think, judging from where it was 'liberated' in WWII) had a blade only as thick as a scimitar or shamshir, and as hard as a pawnbroker's heart...--gunhou

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The sword cannot cut itself, the eye cannot see itself.
 
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