Sepuh Crafts product review

Harry The Camper

Tenderfoot
Sep 22, 2008
93
0
Kuala Lumpur
www.yahoo.com
I am a friend of bandel4, but I do NOT have any affiliation or commercial interests with his business/website, its just an honest review.

Greetings all,

As some of you may have known, bandel4 runs a website entitled Sepuh Crafts, which sells authentic parangs and other traditional crafts handmade by artisans here in Malaysia and Borneo.

Link

His efforts are commendable because he helps the native communities earn some side income by selling their handicrafts, this also assists in keeping the traditions and skills alive.

He sells a wide range of crafts, ranging from fire-pistons to handwoven mats. My principle interest was the parangs which he offers, they are pretty much one-off or custom pieces as they are hand made to order and are all slightly different in shape and size. Here are a few samples:

ray-mears-style-parang-for-sale.jpg
parang-duku.jpg


parangs-like-ray-mears.jpg
local-borneo-parang.jpg



Here are mine, you can spot them in the pictures above too.

IMG_0419.jpg


Thanks to BOD for the sheath mod ideas.

IMG_0420.jpg


The shorter one is a "candong" whereas the longer cutlass type blade is a "duku panjang".

The "candong" bears some resemblance to a "Ray Mears" parang, its a well balanced chopper and good for campwork. I have used it on numerous occasions, the ergonomics

are exceptional, at home shaving feather sticks as much as chopping down a small tree.

The "duku panjang" is predominantly a trail knife with camp craft capabilities. I'm not familiar with knife laws back in the UK, but this thing is a beast at approximately 30cm

long, might raise a few eyebrows with it sticking out of a bergen....:cop:

I love it. Clearing vines and fallen brush is a breeze, and makes me think of its head-hunter credentials. Superb at slicing through a reasonably sized limb of a tree or stalk of

bamboo with one clean swing. Becomes a bit of an obsession trying to clear the trail with as few strokes as possible...

IMG_0422.jpg

IMG_0423.jpg


Both these parangs, and all others sent out by Sepuh Crafts come with pins inserted. More recent models made in Peninsular Malaysia come with a reinforced brass blade

guard for extra safety (first photo on the left).

Bandel4 has loads of experience sending these out to customers in the US and Europe, so no worries there.

Surf his site and contact him if you are interested or would like to make further inquiries.

Thanks.

PS: Just felt like helping a mate out and giving him a bit of praise.
 

BCUK Shop

We have a a number of knives, T-Shirts and other items for sale.

SHOP HERE