The MY Parang Lading
Having its roots for a long time in the Malay culture, the Parang Lading is a quite popular traditional designed parang. It is believed to originate from the state of Kedah, Malaysia. The Parang Lading is also used as a weapon in the Silat Cekak ( Traditional Malaysian martial arts ) , other than as an agricultural tool . There are some slight differences in the everyday tool and the ones used in Silat cekak.
One of the main difference is that for Silat Cekak, the Parang Lading needs to be made to match the owners arm. There are specific ways on how to measure this. Why does it need to be so? It is believed that a proper sized tool ( matched with the owner ) will not “bite” the user / owner. This is very important, maybe not so in everyday use, but definitely during Close Quarter Combat.
Another difference is that the Parang lading used in Silat Cekak is usually only sharp about 1-2 inches from the tip. This is done so the un-sharpened part of the blade is used to stop or deflect the opponents strike. The agricultural version has perhaps 10 inches of sharpened edge ( on a 12 inch blade ) .
Here is a short video of the Parang lading used in Silat Cekak.
We have been selling the MY Parang Lading for a year locally, and we are very pleased with the response so far .
Another point we would like to put forward is that the MY Parang Lading blade is not made in Bidor. They are made in Pekan Darat ,Penang. One of our first articles was on Pekan Darat, a village with a long history of knife and weapon making. You can read the article here. Why not Bidor? Because we would like to do what we can, to ensure the blacksmithing industry is alive and continued in Pekan Darat.
Specifications for the MY Parang Lading are as follows:
- Blade length : 30 cm / 12 in
- Handle length: 17 cm / 6.7 in
- Overall length: 47 cm / 18.7 in
- Widest blade: 5.5 cm / 2.2 in
- Weight ( blade and handle ) : 480 grams / 17 oz
- Sheath length: 34.5 cm / 13.5 in
Width: 33.5 cm / 13.5 in
Weight: 160 grams / 5.6 oz - Gross weight : 645 grams / 22.7 oz
Sold locally for about a year they will be out for sale internationally very soon. Click here to see where they are sold