Buy Malaysian parang.
Most local people in Malaysia will know roughly where to get parangs. At the moment, we do not have any dedicated knife or gun shops like those in western countries. Back when I used to follow my father overseas, I remember going into specialist shops selling knives, scissors and guns. It was like a candy store and I remember that I was particularly interested in a small gun capable of shooting small pallets. As you might have expected, my dad did not buy it for me for obvious reasons.
Buying parangs in Malaysia is not such a difficult task, especially if you are in the kampungs or villages. If you are right smack in the middle of big cities, then yes, you may have to go to Ace hardware or similar to look for parangs. Generally parangs can be found in sundry shops , hardware shops ( selling construction material ) as well as some specialty parang shops ( very seldom ) as the below pictures .
The following pictures shows some parang , knives and agricultural tools which I saw in some specialty shops . These shops are more or less near each other and you can’t find them elsewhere in Malaysia. I’ve never seen so many parangs in one place ever. They come in all shapes and sizes, from small game cleaning knives to meat cleavers to fancy swords. One thing to note is that they are all made in Malaysia.
The Royal Malaysian Customs requires a special permit to import knives which have a blade more than 6 inches and weapons like katanas , daggers ( including the keris ) , automatic knives, knuckle dusters are all illegal and are prohibited for import.
As you can see from the pictures above, the array and choice can be mind boggling. There are cheap ones as well as better made ones like those below , with the wooden sheaths and handles. The cheaper ones are usually used for rough work such as clearing brush and weeds, while the better parangs are kept for more specific task like slaughtering and game cleaning. In east Malaysia for example there are parang competitions where craftsmen will show off their beautifully carved parangs sheaths .I have yet to see them personally , but will do when I get wind of the next competition.
Keep your eyes open, as myparang.com will soon be producing their own range of parangs. Keep visiting this blog to find out where to buy Malaysian parang
