Information wanted

[RLFJRKnives2025]

Hello Blade enthusiasts.

I need help identifying the country of origin for this blade. Not sure of the age but it looks to be 60's. Maybe earlier

It has a wood handle and wood sheath. The blade is 10 inches and the handle is 6 inches. Wooden sheath. The blade is very solid in the handle and the sheath is fairly solid. Looks to be Vietnamese or Polynesian?

I acquired the blade with a large collection of fixed and folding knives. All vintage ranging from early Spyderco and Cold Steel to Al Mar. most are in mint condition with very few that were ever used. Then there is this one that seems way out of place. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you


RF

 

[LARGO9]

Dha or daab from Thailand (dha is the most common name; daab is Thai). This is a fairly typical example of a modern made-for-tourists sword from Thailand - this particular style with the turned hilt was very common in the 1960s and 1970s, but they were made earlier and later than that, too. Blades are often unhardened steel, not made for use. Blades have short tangs, glued into the hilt (same construction is also seen on older functional dha).

The dha can be either knife or sword sized. Your example is a short one, and is basically the same as the larger sword-sized ones except for its size.

The most common decoration on these is many stamped S-marks (just decoration, with no particular meaning). This has many of them, which is pretty standard. Another common decoration is brass inlays on the spine with engravings/grooves next to them. I can't see from the photos whether this has such an inlay.

The dotted circle mark (representing a bitter melon seed?) means, IIRC, that this particular ones comes from Aranyik (a traditional centre of knife and sword making in Thailand)

 

[LARGO9]

 

[RLFJRKnives2025]

Hey Largo9

Thank you so much for the information. Looking at the blade it isn't made with great quality so your assessment is spot on. And very similar to the one you posted. I'm guessing the value is pretty minimal then since it's essentially a tourist item

I appreciate the information

Richard