Ethnographic Arms & Armour
 

Go Back   Ethnographic Arms & Armour > Discussion Forums > Ethnographic Weapons

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Old 10th November 2020, 11:44 PM   #1
Jerseyman
Member
 
Jerseyman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 97
Default Bao An Utility Knife

This is a recent auction acquisition. I've not had a chance yet to give it a clean, though I'm not sure it needs too much work.

It seems to be a real working knife - comfortingly solid in the hand. It's sharp and has been ground down through use. The tip has a very slight lateral bend - it looks as though it's been used as a pry bar at some time in its life! The blade is quite deeply hollow ground except at the point where it actually swells out putting some mass right behind the tip.

It's lost a hollow circular copper pin on the right side of the hilt. It has a most attractive layering of horn and different alloy plates, filed into a wave or scalloped form to create a flared butt cap.

The right side of the blade carries a dot-punch image of a hand - termed 'wriggle-work' by the auctioneer. The left side has a form of script I'm unfamiliar with - four characters in a cloud outline.

I'd suggest a Bao An attribution based on these two previous threads:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showpo...10&postcount=1

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ighlight=Bonan

Measurements:

(A side note on measurements. I realise I'm out of step with most forumites when I include such detailed measurements. There are two reasons I do so - partly it's early career training, but mostly it's because the community has created such an amazing resource and archive with this forum that I can imagine that a small demographic of practical and academic researchers might find it useful to have precise measurements to further their studies).

Length - 27cm
Hilt length - 12.5cm
Hilt depth (@ blade) - 2.7cm
Hilt depth (@ flare) - 3.4cm
Hilt width - 2cm
Blade length - 14.5cm
Blade width (at hilt) - 2.5cm
Blade width (@ clip point) - 1.8cm
Spine width (at hilt) - 0.6cm
Spine width (@ clip point) - 0.2cm
Blade thickness (@clip point) - 0.4cm
Attached Images
            
Jerseyman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10th November 2020, 11:49 PM   #2
Jerseyman
Member
 
Jerseyman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 97
Default

Not long after I received this I happened to see a beautiful example on Artzi's website. These following pictures are used courtesy of Oriental-Arms.

It's great to see how this knife might have looked when first purchased or given.
Attached Images
   
Jerseyman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11th November 2020, 02:18 AM   #3
Philip
Member
 
Philip's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: California
Posts: 1,036
Default

Thanks for posting these interesting knives. If you will note the trefoil rondels embellishing the chatelaine on Artzi's example, this symbol (gan-shi) can also be seen on the suspension fittings of a Tibetan long sword which is the feature of another recent thread, "Tibetan Sword", initiated by Bill M.
Philip is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 11:19 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Posts are regarded as being copyrighted by their authors and the act of posting material is deemed to be a granting of an irrevocable nonexclusive license for display here.