SE Asian rice sickle knife (Cambodian?)

[Ian]

This is a nice example of the rice sickle knife that is used widely in mainland SE Asia to harvest rice. The hilt is the wooden area capped by a carved snake head. The large curved wooden section is used to capture a sheaf of stalks, which are held in one hand and then cut with the iron sickle's edge. The knife is held by the straight section adjacent to the ferrule. The collection of the stalks occurs with the wrist in a pronated position, drawing the stalks towards the reaper. The hand is rolled over to a supinated wrist position to engage the sickle and the stalks are cut below the clasped hand with a slicing motion, again towards the reaper.. This wrist-demanding and back-straining work is mainly done by women and children.

The example shown here is said to come from Cambodia, but similar sickle knives are found in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and probably Myanmar and southern China. This one is better preserved than most examples that come on the market,

Probably collected sometime in the 20th C.
.

[Sajen]

Hi Ian,

A nice one! And yes, this style is attributed to Cambodia so far I know.

Regards,
Detlef

[Sajen]

Here a similar one from Lee: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ght=rice+knife

[Lee]

Here is another purely functional variation:

[JeffS]

Originally Posted by Ian

This is a nice example of the rice sickle knife that is used widely in mainland SE Asia to harvest rice. The hilt is the wooden area capped by a carved snake head. The large curved wooden section is used to capture a sheaf of stalks, which are held in one hand and then cut with the iron sickle's edge. The knife is held by the straight section adjacent to the ferrule. The collection of the stalks occurs with the wrist in a pronated position, drawing the stalks towards the reaper. The hand is rolled over to a supinated wrist position to engage the sickle and the stalks are cut below the clasped hand with a slicing motion, again towards the reaper.. This wrist-demanding and back-straining work is mainly done by women and children.

The example shown here is said to come from Cambodia, but similar sickle knives are found in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and probably Myanmar and southern China. This one is better preserved than most examples that come on the market,

Probably collected sometime in the 20th C.
.

While overall design is similar, the blade is much longer than any I have seen in Cambodia. The example from Lee that Detlef posted is more typical. In Cambodia, these nice wooden tools were replaced with mass produced metal models, similarly the nicely carved wooden "animal bells" were replaced by cheap metal versions.