Niuweidao: Chinese "broadsword"

[YMC]

Antique ox-tail dao:
I thought this might of some interest to those who practice with the dao. It is my own personal opinion that practicing with weapons as close to the originals helps one understand the techniques better and to demystify a lot of the "flowery" lore and moves that have crept into the forms. This is a typical late 19th century, turn of the 20th century oxtail dao.

The piece is very tired and fatigued, characterized by multiple areas of deep pitting, hammer marks one commonly sees in field repairs to bent swords, and a substantial crack in the cutting edge near the center of percussion. The tip end of the blade has been ground down so much that it is less than 0.5mm in width.

Yet, I think, in it's day, this was a slightly above average weapon for the following reasons:
1. The fullers are fairly well made and straight.
2. The piece features a faceted spine, which is typical of the better quality pieces of era. Incidentally, the dao also features a "bamboo" pattern spine near the forte, which is a common motif.

Since this sword is so fatigued, it isn't worth anything to the collecting community. However, despite how thin the tip is, the blade is still well balanced (center of gravity is ~5 inches from the guard, which is typical of real antique dao) and so I decided to clean it up for my new practice dao.

I couldn't really get rid of the deep scratches without losing too much of the blade, so I had to find a balance between preservation vs restoration.

The dao is of pattern-welded steel with a qiang-gang (insert) edge of high carbon steel. The edge was quite hard and I could barely scratch it with a metal file. This old warrior was meant to be used. Upon cleaning up the rust, it was revealed that on one side of the forte, there is a plum flower motif, the other side a slogan.

[YMC]

Faceted and "bamboo" spine

[YMC]

Pattern welded body and insert steel edge (arrows point to transition from softer steel body to hardened edge)

[YMC]

Flower motif and slogan

[YMC]

Since there has been some discussion in the past with people presenting what they though were antiques, I hope the above might be helpful for those looking to experience first hand how the actual weapons really handled.

[Fighting Eagle]

Cool sword!

Thanks for posting! :)

[GeneChing]

You know, we run an antique sword in every issue in our 'Featured Weapon' section. Like you, I feel it's important to document antique Chinese weapons. I launched the section soon after I began here in 2000 (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/mlist.php?magyr=2000). It began as feature-length and short articles on specific weapons, but I changed the format in our 2005 March/April (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=578)to a one page spread of an antique piece. It's been going ever since.

Email me if you have more and would like to contribute to the project - Gene@KungFuMagazine.com.

[NorthernShaolin]

YMC,

I have a similar saber but blade only and the motif may not be a flower but a dragon. Look more carefully as it appears to be a dragon's head on the left. I do not know if my eyes are playing tricks and I could be wrong. My blade has a dragon, not flowers

As for the Chinese characters, I have the same characters on my blade, it translates as: "Mission Accomplished."

[YMC]

Here is, hopefully, a better picture demonstrating the flower motif.

[YMC]

A dragon chasing a flaming pearl is also a typical motif found at the forte, however.

[taaigihk]

Very nice. What is the weight of this sabre, the overall length as well as the blade and hilt length? If you can let us know the width at forte and at blade's widest place, it would be cool too. Thanks! :)

[SteveLau]

Yep, I love narrow width single-edge sword too. Broadsword is not my favorite. Look at the tip of the sword shown here. It is my favorite too. We can use pierce move with such sword. I would also like to know its specification. Mine ideal sword weight is 1 to 1.5 lb.



Regards,

KC
Hong Kong

[YMC]

The sword is not with me at moment. I'll get the measurements in the next few days. The weight, in my recollection is ~2lbs (I will of course, get the exact measurement). This blade is in the median range of the examples I've seen in length, weight and thickness at the forte, which can vary fairly widely. I have seen thin light blades with the spine only 5mm at the forte to examples over 1cm.

[Neil Anderson]

Thanks for sharing the sword above. Here is one from my collection. It is less embellished and more what the collecting community refers to as a "village made" piece. From my experience though it is a relatively common form and construction method, as well as length. I think it is a nice representative example of this type of utilitarian Chinese weapon.
31'' overall - 24.5" blade
1.5" forte width
1.75" width at oxtail flair
1 lbs. 12 oz. total weight

[taaigihk]

Thanks for sharing the sword above. Here is one from my collection. It is less embellished and more what the collecting community refers to as a "village made" piece. From my experience though it is a relatively common form and construction method, as well as length. I think it is a nice representative example of this type of utilitarian Chinese weapon.
31'' overall - 24.5" blade
1.5" forte width
1.75" width at oxtail flair
1 lbs. 12 oz. total weight

Cool. Thanks. How old is it?
It has almost no curvature. More of a falchion than a sabre. :)

[Neil Anderson]

Cool. Thanks. How old is it?
It has almost no curvature. More of a falchion than a sabre. :)

That is always the big question for me when I see pieces like this. Unfortunately there appears to be very little evidence available to us at this time to really pin down concrete dates for these things. The "Boxer" uprising era is a convenient term often used when describing many Chinese weapons found today, but I think its use is less than accurate. The fact that broad western world attention was being focused on China at that time, and related photographic evidence is available because of that attention lends itself to the c.1900 labels given to many of these types of swords. That being said, I am going to propose a more liberal estimation of its age 1860-1920.

I have also attaches an interesting image below of an old postcard. I am not sure of its exact date. Although its makers were active in Shanghai from 1898-1919.

[GeneChing]

Check out our 2005 January/February Sword Collector's Special (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=567). There's an article that addresses different kinds of dao - An Introduction to Chinese Single-Edged Hilt Weapons (Dao) and Their Use in the Ming and Qing Dynasties By Phillip M. W. Tom with Scott M. Rodell

[taaigihk]

That is always the big question for me when I see pieces like this. Unfortunately there appears to be very little evidence available to us at this time to really pin down concrete dates for these things. The "Boxer" uprising era is a convenient term often used when describing many Chinese weapons found today, but I think its use is less than accurate. The fact that broad western world attention was being focused on China at that time, and related photographic evidence is available because of that attention lends itself to the c.1900 labels given to many of these types of swords. That being said, I am going to propose a more liberal estimation of its age 1860-1920.

I have also attaches an interesting image below of an old postcard. I am not sure of its exact date. Although its makers were active in Shanghai from 1898-1919.

Interesting. Thanks.

You may take a look at the pic below (alas of poor quality) that shows Chinese daos at the Warsaw Military Museum (mainly from XIX century as I recall):

[SteveLau]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neil Anderson View Post
Thanks for sharing the sword above. Here is one from my collection. It is less embellished and more what the collecting community refers to as a "village made" piece. From my experience though it is a relatively common form and construction method, as well as length. I think it is a nice representative example of this type of utilitarian Chinese weapon.
31'' overall - 24.5" blade
1.5" forte width
1.75" width at oxtail flair
1 lbs. 12 oz. total weight

The dimension is perfect fit to me. But it is a bit over weight. Less 8 oz. will be good. As for the sword tip, I can use such tip even though it is not my ideal one.

Good sharing!



Regards,

KC
Hong Kong