Can you guess where this knife is from?
Let me know in the comments whether you had seen one before, or guessed where it was from, before I said.
The Lalau/laraw is a type of knife that is particular to the Aboriginal tribes of Taiwan.
Excellent article and knife kindly shared by Alex Cheng, a channel Patreon Patron:
https://historybitz.blog/2020/08/13/p...
Extra notes to my video from Alex Cheng:
"The grip is a rattan wrap. This particular item is a smaller example of the knife. The “Pingpu” tribes(Siraya, Makatao, Taivoan[Taiwan’s namesake], Pazeh, Taokas, and many others) were the people on the Western plains of Taiwan and had first contact with the VOC. The VOC started out trading with them for furs, but as animal numbers dwindled, the relationship slowly shifted into a predatory one, as Chinese settlers and indentured natives were put to farms. The Pingpu are often mentioned because these people have largely assimilated with the Chinese, but small clusters still hold on. Their material culture is a big mystery as it is a hard to tell what elements were borrowed from the Chinese or neighboring indigenous people. Therefore, the form of Pingpu knives is something that’s been discussed a lot on the inter webs.
My view is that they were probably the progenitors of this particular knife design, which was traded into the mountains where it further developed.
There is evidence for shield use in the Eastern coast and South of Taiwan, however, there doesn’t seem to be any evidence for shield use in the highlands where this particular knife comes from. This probably makes sense given how dense the jungle is there.
Both the ferrule and the pin is actually a modern addition. Knives were usually just burned onto the handle and left there via friction fit and eventual rust. The tang is about 1/22/3rd’s up the handle. Also, if you give the handle wood a little rub, you can smell camphor. However, the vast majority of examples I’ve seen actually have a socketed handle construction.
Matt is also absolutely right about the scabbard. The staples used to be strips of wood held on by rattan or rattan alone. I’ve also seen examples where rawhide is being used."
Many thanks again to Alex for this!