The Thailand expat forum for Travel, Lifestyle and Fun.

dirtydog

I have to admit I was quite suprised to learn that they make proper swords in Thailand, ie not your usual market stall tourist junk that would cause as much damage to an over ripe apple as similar sized lump of wood would do.

This guy who sells them I met in Ayutthaya, he even took me to Ayutthayas Soi of Sin and Bars. no marmite I aint telling you where it is.

Anyway his website goes thru the whole lot on each aspect of making a sword.

Making the sword - forming & tempering the blade




First things first, the forge must be prepared. seen here is the smith making the vent that will feed the fire with air from the blower behind it.




To forge the blade, a strip of steel, used here is high carbon steel, is cut to the approximate needed size.




When the fire is set and the glow has reached a high enough temperature -




- the cut strip of steel is heated in the glow, consisting of burning bamboo coal -




- until it is ready to be transformed.




It is tempered, and formed as well -




- so it is hammered -




- and hammered more




- until it attains the desired shape -




- or becomes too cold for further crafting.




A last hit and then back to the fire




An immediate forming of the tip




A quick look to check for the next hit, some cooling with water to harden and temper it -




After a minute or two, back in the glowing coal, then the forming goes on -




- until the shape of the desired sword is attained.




Nearly there -




It is now the work of the master smith to judge the work made during this part of the sword making procedure. The finishing and the testing will be accomplished by the master smith unless he is confident enough to rely on an assistant to go on with the next phase.
In some cases some very final touches are made by the master himself to obtain for example the famous extra hardened edge of a sword. Sometimes this is done even when engravings have already been put onto the blade. These steps are revealed in our next pages finishing and testing

- a few adjusted hits and the rough work is done


LINKY LINKY

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dirtydog

I think it would be a nice job in the winter in the Uk, but here in this heat sitting over a red hot fire? na, I shall give that a miss.

Making the sword - the engraved blade decorations
The engraving on the blade consists in stamping a pattern into the blade. First the blade is covered with a thin layer of colored powder, next the outlines of the pattern are drawn on it, to guide the artist to aim correctly. The pictures speak for themselves.




















As already seen on our offered Items pages, after cleaning, some polishing and blade treating, the final result is pristine.

Little Chuchok

http://www.thaitambon.com/tambon/tsm...ME=02325105143

Here are some products from the OTOP website.Also made in Ayutthaya.

Quite reasonable priced too.

Sukhoi

dirtydog

cozun[at]cozun.com custom blades aint cheap

cozun

Hi,

just send me information about the idea of how your knife shall be constructed and look like (blade shape, tang style, materials used, a.s.o.),
I will then forward you some pictures and comments about what is available and feasible.
I have now also a whole bunch of knives in stock. These will be published within 2 months on my website for sale or made to order, together with other swords, from additional sources and locations. I'll keep you posted.

I'll be in the South of the country between the 2nd and the 6th of September, am thus not certain I'll be able to reply during that time.

In awaiting to read from any of you guys,
cozun[at]cozun.com
cozun.com - hand made crafts from Thailand

man with no head

Even seen a high quality Katana sword? Or a knife made from Damascus steel?

Now those are something to behold.

Damascus Steel and Hand Forged Knives - Home page

Pattern welding - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

mad_dog

Thai craftmanship? Well I never!

Gerbil

Hmmm... I'm actually quite tempted to order something, always thought a sword or two would look good on the wall of my study.

cozun

Damascus steel is also made in thailand.
The problem is to find the one or the other smith who does it or is willing to do it, and a good quality. The other concern is, perhaps, the price.
Right now I am trying to source several makers of such blades. I would show some pictures of existing crafts, scanned from a book about making folded steel by a Thai blacksmith guild, but uploading images in this forum only works with an " url " link, it seems, unfortunately I have no such link at disposition presently concerning these illustrations.

I'll post again if I was successful in finding anything or anyone.

coZun

dirtydog

You can either use the gallery here or just do a copy and paste from your web site.

Gerbil

How about one that can do this?

Sukhoi

cozun - I have tried to email you and pm you (I don't have 50 posts) My eamil address is stevehuur[at]hotmail.com

kingwilly

i was surprised to be reading about this page and then stumbled accross this on a favourite Kung Fu website....

Bat Jum Dao (Eight Slashing-and-Piercing Sword-Set) at the Wing Chun Archive!



these are the well known Kung fu butterfly swords - or in Chinese Baat Jum Dao (the 8 slashing swords - possibly because they can slash your opponent in 8 different ways!) - a razor sharp sword like this can take your arm off if u not careful. They are built heavy so they have super chopping action.

and here's an example of how a Fung Fu practitioner might use them ....




and this

Is this you then ?? the Thailand source not the website owner . Or is Thailand a hotbed of master knife craftsmen ??

and this quote was great because it is sooooooooo typical.

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KID

I hear there is a German that just got arrested for threatening people with a sword there, maybe ya could buy his stock pile cheap as i am sure he is in need of bail money an american with some nice guns also

kingwilly

i liked this one

Samurai vs Knight 2

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

KID

^ wtf, hardend steel vs. lead

what was he thinking that it could beat that sword? especially turned toward the edge? should have broke out the 50 cal.

Gerbil

I was thinking the same, especially as the bullets used appeared to be hollow pointed.

cozun

Those are no articles I offer (yet?!), but I could, for half and even less of the price indicated I believe.
I have also no clue who it is that is offering these butterfly swords and where he gets them from - may be he mentions it on his site, I just had a brief look at that page.
One of my suppliers did a pair of similar butterfly swords (Bat Jum Dao) about 3-4 months ago for a customer/distributor based in the USA (NY), but myself have not heard from him since.
And Thailand is not a hotbed of master knife craftsmen, no I do not believe it is. With over 60 million citizens it must be normal to find a few that just like to fabricate knives and perhaps swords or the like.

So long,
coZun.