Is this a siraui?

[Sajen]

Beautiful antique example with a much newer scabbard. Love the brass handle. But I wouldn't call it parang, by this length it's a piso/pisau. The wire near the scabbard throat I've seen by it's big brother, the balato as well.

Regards,
Detlef

[Ian]

Originally Posted by Sajen

Beautiful antique example with a much newer scabbard. Love the brass handle. But I wouldn't call it parang, by this length it's a piso/pisau. The wire near the scabbard throat I've seen by it's big brother, the balato as well.

Regards,
Detlef

Hi Detlef:

Sorry about the "parang" terminology. I was copying that from the old thread that you linked to. I will amend that to pisau Nias.

Yes, I think the scabbard probably is more recent that the knife. Once I get this one I will clean it up to examine the brass hilt better, and will try to post more pics here.

Interestingly, this knife had been online for a while and the price had just been dropped to a third of its original asking amount. I guess someone felt generous over the Holiday Season.

Ian

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by Ian

Interestingly, this knife had been online for a while and the price had just been dropped to a third of its original asking amount. I guess someone felt generous over the Holiday Season.

Hi Ian,

good that I haven't noticed the listing!

[Sajen]

This little beauty was sold last night by ebay, sadly I wasn't able to win it! It could be that this thread raised the bids!?

[Ian]

Originally Posted by Sajen

This little beauty was sold last night by ebay, sadly I wasn't able to win it! It could be that this thread raised the bids!?

Detlef, I'm sorry to hear you missed out on that one. It would not be the first time that something said here subsequently affected the price of an item online. There is sometimes a price to pay for sharing knowledge.

I have been contacted in the past by people who acknowledged that they bought a sword or knife because it was discussed here, and then offered to sell it to me because they knew I was interested in it! That was before eBay masked the names of unsuccessful bidders.

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by Ian

Detlef, I'm sorry to hear you missed out on that one. It would not be the first time that something said here subsequently affected the price of an item online. There is sometimes a price to pay for sharing knowledge.

Hi Ian,

thank you for your sympathy! And very well said!

Regards,
Detlef

[Ian]

Detlef,

I just noticed that the one that slipped by us last night has a brass hilt of similar form to the bone one on my example in post #21 of this thread. Maybe this is a common Nias style. I am not sufficiently familiar with Nias hilts to know whether it is common. What do you think?

Ian.

[DaveF]

Hi Ian,

I saw the pisau Nias that you've just acquired on ebay at the start of last month. It was advertised as a "Dayak Warrior Sword/knife". From research on this site I thought it looked more like a Nias piece so I messaged the seller to ask whether it may be Nias. He didn't reply, but immediately changed the description to "Nias Warrior Sword/knife". As a still novice collector I lacked confidence in my own assessment and decided to swerve it, even though I thought it looked really interesting. So, I'm delighted to see that someone who really does know what they're talking about was happy to acquire it as a pisau Nias! It just shows what a fantastic resource this site is. Long may it flourish.