It's not much...

the blade is definitely husa dha type according to the other forums, with a running tiger mark typical of shan blacksmiths from the yunnan region-- made for burmese and kachin clients-- my favorite dha has a hornets mark or bird, not one I have ever seen before- but definitely the same region, I imagine this dha was nearer to a major city with the bone and brass- still pretty sure the horn handle is just odd, I think you are right that it looks turkish mainly because they seemed very fond of "horn grips" from goat horns to antlers etc



--my running tiger was half struck and is a crippled tiger
 
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Oooo! Nice shape! I like that one a lot! That long curved hilt looks like it would be very functional!
 
You really have great taste in blades, man. I can't wait to see what you pick up next!

My latest aquisition: A koummyia!

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I already have two of these things but they're both poorly made tourist pieces. I've always wanted a "real" one. Many Koummyas have very poorly made blades that aren't functional at all. Seems like even some real ones have fake blades. This one looks like it has a real blade. There's markings by the hilt, it looks like two 0's and some sort of circular emblem.
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The scabbard's nice too. I think it's brass and silver.

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Interesting acquisitions guys.
Gehazi, That one is sure different than any I have seen before. I like that the Bo-Hi runs the entire length and leaves the cross section at the tip. Very cool. The handle does appear to be different. Not my cup of tea with the decorations, but strangely interesting anyways.

Blue, Another fun addition for you too. Is the blade a false edge down to about half way? Or is that another damaged blade where it has a cut/tear in it? I think it looks like the way it is sharpened but can't tell for sure.
 
The Koummya is a double edged blade, so both sides have a true edge on them. I read that the ricasso on the "front" of the blade is longer so as to make the blade stronger for parrying attacks. Here's a webpage with some good pictures. It's in French though.
http://blade.japet.com/koummya.htm

Some other interesting things I read on the "other" forum: Many true non-tourist Koummyas have horrible blades. Apparently they couldn't produce high quality steel over there. The blade quality isn't that important to the "average" Berber man. Nicer ones would have European blades. So many Koummyas we dismiss as tourist pieces because of the junk blades are actually legit.

I also read that the traditional way they fought with these things was one in each hand and a third one in the mouth. I wonder if this was to compensate for the poor quality blades. You'd want a backup weapon (or two) if your blade snapped.
 
wow some interesting culture, love how the facts of history interact to create the people and their ways-- love the detail about fighting with three blades, the poor quality could be only answer in my mind!
 
There's also apparently some hidden symbolism embedded in the decorations the berbers use on their weapons that's based on their pre-arabic alphabet. My koummyas doesn't have any of these patterns, but a lot do.
 
one of my grail items are the parang nabors with arabic magic squares :D-- something very appealing about the mysticism behind the artifacts
 
oh man, yeah I heard you have to pay 30 or 40 k for that kind -- but while we are wishing :D keris are great looking but for some reason just do not appeal like a mandau or dha to me
 
Ooh Gehazi, I saw the most beautiful Nabur a few weeks ago. Unfortunately it was already sold. item 6864 at OA Not sure I could have afforded it anyways, the price gets removed when they are sold. But it sure was a beauty.
 
I used to be all about the keris but now I think I'd rather have a nice Moro kris with a twist core.
 
<Grins> I should have known you would have been aware of that one. hehe. Too bad someone else was a tad quicker. It really looked to be in awesome shape especially for that price.
 
I have an old Moro Kris and a nice straight old Javanese keris, from way back. I'll try to get some pics tomorrow. They're both laminated but the Moro is really exceptional- differential hardened too, which is no joke with a double edged blade and a coal forge.
Blue-the koummiya/jambiya style of fighting that I've seen tends to be in reverse grip, with a lot of p'kal style pull cuts and ripping thrusts with the long concave edge. The convex edge is the secondary, to create openings. (or so it seems). I carried a little koummiya style antipersonnel scraper when i was working in the sandbox.image.jpg
 
JW, I am really happy to know that the military is starting to get smarter about allowing personal knives. I got in a heck of a lot of trouble because before we left for Honduras I delivered scottish leaf blade boot knives to every soldier in my platoon. Unfortunately the Col. noticed one that wasn't tucked far enough into the laces during an inspection I didn't expect. I admitted to having bought them for everyone when he was about to rip the poor cpl up for the "un-issued item". Earned me a serious mark in my file :( AND a beautiful damascus boot knife from the men when we got back :) I know which way I would go if I had it to do again... I would make sure they had them with them but not laced in the boot until on the plane LOL. Anyways, good to know they aren't as stupid as they used to be about that sort of thing.
 
Oh, they're still stupid. I bought a $20 used kabar after my squad leader told me he didn't want to deal with the UCMJ proceedings if somebody stole my Randall... CO walked up to me on a field problem and said, and I quote:
"I don't want to discuss this (because it's stupid) but that's too long."
I bought a $35 SRK.
The one above was from when I was, shall we say, condottieri. I could carry whatever I wanted. GSE13 with a ballcap, a beard and a shorty AK. (And some sketchy Bulgarian frags).
 
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