# Communities > Antique Arms & Armour Community > Chinese, South-East Asia (CSEA) >  Burmese Dha

## W. Kroncke

i see we've not had a dha here recently, so i'll throw this one out for your perusal:







the other side of the brass central section shows a phoenix, hintha or garuda bird.




with new baldric

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## Ruud B

very nice dha, what are the measurements?
Cotton baldric are hard to get, my source tels me Birma is the only place to get them.

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## kevin.feng

good

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## kevin.feng

.
.

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## W. Kroncke

Grip is 8.25" long, blade is 24.5", 1.139" wide at guard, reduces down to 0.965", expanding back to 1.085" about 6" from the tip. thickness at handgrip junction is 0.353", distal taper to 0.240 9" from grip where the square edged spine then is rounded to the tip. (smaller measurements by digital caliper  :Wink:  ). scabbard is 25" long and is a lot finer made than any of my others.

baldric is made from a 2 metre hunk of nylon climbing rope until i can get around to buying a proper one from the region - mr. cozun (www.cozun.com) can supply them in various colors. (braided cotton sash cord can sometimes be found in hardware stores and is a reasonable substitute & can be dyed - i can't find any locally tho, but had some decorative blue & gold climbing rope on hand)

here's one on a short (18.5" blade, 10.5" grip) cozun darb of mine: (i retied the knot with a carrick bend)

this is the first one mr. cozun had made with the double pinned full tang back in 2006, HC steel blade, differentially hardened (has a faint hamon). decorations were stamped in before hardening.

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## Ruud B

Yes Serge gets them from Birma.. 
thanks for the measurements.

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## Nathaniel Hope

Nice dha Kronke!  Any other pics of pieces to share?

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## W. Kroncke

well, i got another that looks like it came thru serge, posted HERE, and here's a few more older ones.













picture of decorations on the blade of one (kukhuri scabbards above it)



sword with above decorations, HI 20" Kobra Kukhuri below it. 



have another one or two about somewhere if i can find the pics...

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## Mark Bowditch

I only just came across this thread.  Nice piece.  The swollen grip is a bit unusual; more typically they are uniform in diameter.  The bird is a peacock, the symbol of the Burmese royal house, and Burma in general.

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## W. Kroncke

it's my best piece i think, i tried getting the inscription translated over on the ethnographic arms & armour forum a couple years ago, without much luck (i think the photo with the inscription shows it upside down.  :Wink:  ) the 'other' Mark (  :Smilie:  ) over there was able to hazard a guess as to the phonetics but not the meaning) looks made for someone fairly important, even the brass scabbard bands are decorated (pointille?) with interlocked curly 'S''s, lines and the wood either side of the band is enscribed with two fine lines. the one at the scabbard mouth is enscribed with simple flowers, six circular 'petals' around a central circle. the scabbard is a lot thinner and better made than my others, and the blade is an obvious fighting blade rather than a decorator.

the blade is 25" long, 1" at the hilt, 1.25" at it's widest near the point, 3/8" thick at the hilt, distally tapering to the point. the 1st third of the spine is rounded, the latter 2/3 of the spine is square, there are two narrow fullers that run to within a couple inches of the point, and a fine groove cut above it for about the 1st 1/3 from the hilt. the blade is not inlaid with silver scrolls & brass spine inlays as is my other dha, but appears to be heavier, more business-like. the hilt is 8.5", the silver sections 3" and the central brass bit 2.5".

the dha was sold on ebay as an 'egyptian curved sword with scabbord' and i managed to beat all the other bidders and picked it up for a huge sum (i was the only bidder & got it for less than the postage)

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## Mark Bowditch

It definitely was the "other Mark," since this one can't imagine how he got even that far!  :Wink:  :Big Grin:   Our resident Burmese expert over on EAA has unfortunately dropped out of sight for some time.  They are usually dedications to the effect of "to so-and-so for doing something" (like distinguished civil service).  I have one that was given in recognition of someone's efforts to fight banditry in his region.

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## Ruud B

I got a nice present from my father yesterday , he could not tell me anything about it, but I like it.

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## Jeroen Zuiderwijk

> 


That's pretty similar to the one I've got, except that mine has the tip curved from the spine down, rather then from the edge up. Do you have any information on yours?

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## Mark Bowditch

> I got a nice present from my father yesterday , he could not tell me anything about it, but I like it.


That's a nice-looking Bama (Burmese) dha.  The blade looks very well-made - false edge, wide fuller.  Is the spine near the handle flat or grooved?  If it is the latter, that is rare.

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## Mark Bowditch

> That's pretty similar to the one I've got, except that mine has the tip curved from the spine down, rather then from the edge up. Do you have any information on yours?


These are likely Shan.  Is the tip of your scabbard rounded or squared?  Scabbards of Shan dha tend to have rounded tips, and those of Bama dha squared.  The down-swept tip also is rare in a Bama dha.  It would be called in Thai "hua lu guy/luk kai," "hua toh" or "hua pla lod," depending on the exact shape.  The tip of the one in this photo would be called "hua mon."

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## Jeroen Zuiderwijk

> These are likely Shan.  Is the tip of your scabbard rounded or squared?


 Squared.




> Scabbards of Shan dha tend to have rounded tips, and those of Bama dha squared.  The down-swept tip also is rare in a Bama dha.  It would be called in Thai "hua lu guy/luk kai," "hua toh" or "hua pla lod," depending on the exact shape.  The tip of the one in this photo would be called "hua mon."


 I just dug up a photo of mine:


Just an extra bit of information: This sword, along with a yataghan and kukri, belonged to Sir John Nicholson. He was a fellow of the royal collage of surgeons who collected them during the war while working as a army doctor, probably with the eighth army, he died around 1982.

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## Ruud B

> That's a nice-looking Bama (Burmese) dha.  The blade looks very well-made - false edge, wide fuller.  Is the spine near the handle flat or grooved?  If it is the latter, that is rare.



The spine near the handle is flat (bit rounded).
Most of Bama is nice and solid, there is a tiny bit of play on the copper work in the handle and the end cap is a bit lose.
Blade is nice and sharp and well maintained.

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## Mark Bowditch

I think this one is from Burma, based on scabbard tip and handle length, though the blade may have been made in Thai.  This tip ("hua") is called "lu guy," as the down-turn at the tip is abrupt and there is no change in the curve at the edge.  The little blip at the very tip is also characteristic of this and similar hua, such as hua bua and hua pla lod.

You can never rule out a different provenance, such as Shan or northern Thailand or Laos, or even Yunnan, as dha can travel very far from home via trade.




> Squared.
> 
>  I just dug up a photo of mine:
> 
> 
> Just an extra bit of information: This sword, along with a yataghan and kukri, belonged to Sir John Nicholson. He was a fellow of the royal collage of surgeons who collected them during the war while working as a army doctor, probably with the eighth army, he died around 1982.

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## Jeroen Zuiderwijk

> I think this one is from Burma, based on scabbard tip and handle length, though the blade may have been made in Thai.  This tip ("hua") is called "lu guy," as the down-turn at the tip is abrupt and there is no change in the curve at the edge.  The little blip at the very tip is also characteristic of this and similar hua, such as hua bua and hua pla lod.


 Thanks, that helps a lot already!

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