Chinese Sword Dao of Qing Dynasty

The famous “kung-fu Dao” of the late Qing dynasty. It has quite a long lineage and can be traced back to Japanese Katana blades in the Ming dynasty brought by Japanese troops during their invasion. (This is one of the narratives. The exact origin is not yet confirmed.) Dao like this have excellent cutting power and often feature a raised disc guard like this, usually braised or forged. Such dao is usually considered utilitarian and not made in excellent quality. Much like a Medieval European falchion, the blade of such dao features quite a lot of distal taper where its thickness on the top 1/3 is less than 2mm, counter-balancing its broader width and provide good handling characteristics. It