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What type of weapon is this?


MarcusP

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That is essentially a tourist souvenir, styled after a South East Asian DHA sword. The styles varied a lot between Burmese, Thai, Laotian and Vietnamese, but all have a similar shape with a long-ish handle.

 

This particular one is widely available even today in and around tourist areas in most of Thailand, especially up north, I have seen many examples. They have been available for many decades. They come in red, black and brown, some have silver plated handle details and many have extensive Sanskrit writing engraved on the blades. Base models go for around $20 US, higher end ones go for around $50 US.

 

Mark

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Thank you all for the help. I came to this forum because my father-in-law has had this in his family for 30 years and he was told that his father got it from his time in Southeast Asia during around WW2. I'm curious if this would still be sold as a tourist souvenir as Mark indicated during that timeframe having been in the family for over 50+ years.  

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Marcus,

 

First off be careful, family stories rarely hold water when subjected to scrutiny and facts, so take any past down story with a bit of caution and a grain of salt.

 

Doing your math of being in the family for 50 years, only puts the blade at around 1971-ish, WWII in Europe was from 1939-1945, but earlier in the east as the Japanese actually invading China in 1937.

 

That being said, yes these types of souvenirs have been around since at least the late 1940's. The real swords were predominately made during 2 separate times in history. The original military weapons were during the Lanna era of the late 1700's, but when the British occupied Burma in the 1930's-1940's they made a huge comeback, as the British commissioned the local smiths to manufacture vast numbers of them for the indigenous military forces of Burma.

Swords from that later period usually have a stamp near the handle that depicts a turtle or a star, etc.

 

All of the original style are made with a wrapped steel forging technique, where thin layers of steel are wrapped around an iron core, usually about 6 layers. Each layer hammer forged onto the previous layer, then differentially heat treated to yield a hard edge with a softer backing/spine. This is not to be confused with a "folded" forging method such as the Japanese style.

 

Even some modern replica's look accurate, but can be told apart from the originals as they often will have small pieces of copper or brass inlaid on the spine near the handle, and or small lines notched across the spine, and are not of the wrapped forging technique.

 

Just about anything with Sanskrit or fuller grooves on it, is a modern replica/tourist item, with the blade made from a truck leaf spring. Of course as with anything, there are variations on these themes until the cows come home, so nothing is etched in stone when it comes to South /East Asian DHA swords. There were flamboyant originals and plain Jane originals, just like there are the same with modern replicas.

 

As with almost anything that is potentially old, one needs to do research, learn, observe and view actual items in hand, before a calculated determination can be made as to authenticity, era, locality etc.

 

Unfortunately what you have is not even a good copy of an original, everything about it is incorrect for an original, and simply screams tourist item. Sorry to be the bearer of this news.

 

Mark

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Mark, once again, thanks for the info. No worries about bearing bad news. Just wanted to provide my father-in-law some answers as all he had when giving it to me was the story his father told him of it coming into the family during a tour in WWII in SE Asia with some manner of headhunter story, and he assumed it was Japanese in origin. I also realized I put the wrong numbers for years (mix up my 5s and 8s sometimes) as I am fully aware of when WWII was. 

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Hello Marcus,

 

I'm a bit of a history buff, so a little more details for you. The only Head Hunters of any marked claim were located on the island of Borneo, no where near Burma/Thailand/Laos/Cambodia/Vietnam. If I recall correctly, the last claimed occurrence of any headhunter falderal was in the late 1800's-early 1900's, but I have not delved into that to any extent. Borneo swords and knifes are dramatically different in shape/style/form.

 

As far as The US being on the ground in South East Asia during WWII, that was extremely limited, a few combined tiny efforts with the British in Burma, and an air war campaign out of china called the "Flying Tigers", but that was air warfare only, no boots on the ground. There was no "tours of duty" on the South East Asia mainland during WWII for the US. There were no US bases/outposts anywhere on the mainland. The US military action was island hoping warfare only.

 

With that being said, once the war ended, there was a fair amount of allied visiting of many South East Asian countries, helping with rebuilding and such, so......maybe then???

 

Mark

 

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5 hours ago, MHC said:

As far as The US being on the ground in South East Asia during WWII, that was extremely limited, a few combined tiny efforts with the British in Burma, and an air war campaign out of china called the "Flying Tigers", but that was air warfare only, no boots on the ground. There was no "tours of duty" on the South East Asia mainland during WWII for the US. There were no US bases/outposts anywhere on the mainland. The US military action was island hoping warfare only.

There was quite a few pockets of US ground forces in China and SE Asia in WW2. General “Vinegar Joe” Stillwell’s CBI Theater forces that included Merrill’s Marauders—limited—but more than a few when you include the logs tail. Also in China- US Army Engineers and associated logs folks built and maintained airfields once the flying tigers became the CATF and 14th  Airforce. Also some advisory groups with both sides (even Mao had a US Army liaison team). Plus the random OSS types active in the region. Marines get all the credit (deserved credit for sure) for the Island campaign but the Army was running around Asia quite a bit back then too!
 

Post war who knows who was running around those days, as you note. Start of the Cold War and all.  
 

Side note since you are in Thailand too, Phrae has a cool museum to the Seri Thai units the OSS trained.

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Hello Chris,

 

Ok, I know I'm probably picking the fly s**t out of the pepper here, but technically China is considered East Asia where as Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia make up South East Asia.

 

The Flying Tigers were in China and had fixed air bases and operated for an extended service period. Mao's advisors were once again based in China. The advanced US engineer's in China were again, in China. The interdictions into Burma were individual operations which occurred over short time periods with no fixed bases. Merrill's Marauders operation was one of the longer time frame operations in the area. The OSS camp in north east Thailand you mentioned, was a 1 time occurrence in the late summer of 1945 at the very end of the war, consisting of only a handful of OSS operative trainers. This handful of operatives were parachuted into, what was then considered Japanese held territory, trained approximately 300 "Free Thai" to act as gorilla units, but the war ended before any substantial uprising occurred.

 

It is my understanding that in a case of a single operation [such as the Merrill's Marauders raid}, this would still not be considered a Tour of Duty in the military. As a Tour of Duty is generally considered as an extended period of time during your service commitment (example, 1 year in country in Vietnam or 1 year in country in Afghanistan etc.).

 

Marcus mentioned the story that was pasted down about his Grandfather doing a "tour" {of duty} in South East Asia, and I simply was commenting that there were no per say, Tours of duties on the mainland of South East Asia during the war.

 

Getting back to the actual topic at hand, that being the sword Marcus now has, regardless of the circumstances, what he has is still a modern-ish tourist item and not an authentic South East Asian DHA sword. So historical minutia just doesn't come into play here.

 

Mark

 

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Chris,

 

Since you are also in Thailand (Bangkok), have you been west of Bangkok to the memorial in Kanchanaburi for the British and Australian soldiers that were killed building the "Burma Railroad". The site is a stones throw away for the real "Bridge on the river Kwai".

And not too far from there is another memorial called "Hell Fire Gorge", which is cery worth seeing and very sobering as well.

 

And just a side note, Hollywood got a bit of the story line incorrect about the "Bridge on the River Kwai", it is NOT built out of bamboo nor is it in the middle of the jungle, it is smack dab in the middle of town, built of steel and concrete and still currently being used.

 

Further up north in Lamphun is a museum located at the current military airbase, which was the original Japanese main airbase during WWII, and includes wreckage of a P38 Lightning as well as other artifacts.

 

There are other museums and such scattered all about Thailand, would make an epic road trip to go visit all of them!

 

Mark

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