Why do Mong people in Nghe An use knives with sharp tips?

(Baonghean.vn) -Like Mong communities in other regions, Mong people in Western Nghe An still preserve traditional occupations that are imbued with the culture of their people.

Living year-round in the high mountains, people have to use special tools to make a living and cope with the harsh living conditions and environment. And the Mong people have created their own sharp knives. Not only that, with their ingenuity, the craftsmen in the highlands have truly breathed life into the unique "baked steel" products from the blacksmithing profession.

The Mong people's knives have sharp sword-like tips and have deep historical roots in their migrations and struggles for survival.

In the highland communes where Mong people live such as Nam Can, Na Ngoi, Nam Can, Huoi Tu, Muong Long, Tay Son, Ta Ca... almost every village has a few people working in blacksmithing to serve their families, serve the villagers and earn extra income.

In Lien Son village (Nam Can commune), only Mr. Va Chay Xa's family still retains the traditional profession left by his father. After each farming season, when the knife is dull, the hoe is worn, the villagers gather together to bring it to his house to have it repaired. He said: "The profession is attached to the career. I opened this blacksmith mainly to serve the people of my village. Knowing how to do it but not doing it to preserve the profession is a crime."

The Mong blacksmithing profession has been passed down from generation to generation. People need knives to go to the forest to clear fields and keep wild animals away, so the lace craft has always had a place in the community.

To forge a Mong knife, the village craftsmen must truly immerse themselves in the product with skillful craftsmanship.

This blacksmithing profession requires the skillful hands of the craftsman. With meticulousness and dedication, the blacksmiths have created knives that rarely chip and are always as bright as a sword blade.

Mr. Va Chay Xa's family has been blacksmithing for generations and said: "Mong people do not make knives just to finish the job. Mong people must carry their knives with them when they go to the fields or return home. It is a blood bond for each person. Therefore, making a good product to carry with them for life is not easy at all. It must achieve the goal of both serving production and expressing the cultural mark of their ethnic group." That is why for many years he has been struggling to find someone among his children to pass on this traditional blacksmithing profession to them.

The knife is always associated with the life of men when going to the forest and the fields.

Mr. Va Chay Xa said: To have a good knife, the blacksmith must prepare every step carefully. In the past, forging knives did not have good iron like today, so the craftsman had to use an iron basin to smash off all the paint on the outside and melt it. But now, the most popular type is car springs.

When burning, hard charcoal must be used to ensure the heat of the iron. A good craftsman is a craftsman with a keen eye, knowing how to look at the heat of the iron to temper it. If the iron is too young, the product will often be dented, on the contrary, if the iron is too old, it will often be chipped.

Seeing his hands strike the iron bar with each sharp sound, one could see his passion for blacksmithing. His eyes never left the iron bar, looking at it again and again as he struck, each hammer blow landed without missing a single point. The shiny buffalo horn handle that he had prepared beforehand was inserted into the shiny knife that was finished, as beautiful as a work of art.

Nowadays, Mong knives are widely used in society, but finding a "true" Mong knife is not easy.

The products from the Mong blacksmithing craft in the Ky Son highlands are truly a unique feature of the ethnic culture. It is closely associated with the struggle and labor production of the Mong people. The forges will still be red hot and the craftsmen will still diligently pass on their skills to their descendants to forever preserve the Mong soul in the knife and the hoe.

Dao Tho - Vuong Van