Kae (Southern Thai Rice-Harvesting Finger Knife) — a 5-6 cm Steel Blade Set in a Trapezoid Board, a Crosswise Bamboo Grip, Cutting Rice One Panicle at a Time

"Put the kae between the middle and ring fingers; with the forefinger and thumb, hold a panicle against the blade and cut one panicle at a time." (Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, author วุฒิชัย เพชรสุวรรณ (Wutthichai Phetsuwan), CC BY 4.0)

Cut hardwood or light wood, such as tin pet (Alstonia) or khe, into a trapezoid 4 cm wide and 0.5 cm thick, one side 5-6 cm long for the blade and the other 8-9 cm long for the grip.

Use a hardened steel blade 5-6 cm long with two pointed tangs, and hammer the tangs into the short side of the board. Beware of the blade's edge.

Cut phai ria bamboo about 7-8 cm long and fix it crosswise to the long side of the board as the grip.

Drawings of the kae and how it is held (Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, author วุฒิชัย เพชรสุวรรณ (Wutthichai Phetsuwan), CC BY 4.0).

Slip the kae between the middle and ring fingers, hold a panicle against the blade with forefinger and thumb, and cut one at a time; gather the cut panicles in the other hand. When the hand is full, set them down to tie into a liang bundle, then store them in the rice barn or stack. Beware of the blade's edge.

Southerners revere Mae Phosop and hold rice sacred; harvesting with the kae drops no grain. Songkhla's well-known kae came from the smithies of Tambon Bo Yang and Ban Bo Sa, now closed as combine harvesters took over. Beware of the blade's edge. Source: Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, Traditional Objects of Everyday Use database, "แกะเก็บข้าว", author วุฒิชัย เพชรสุวรรณ (Wutthichai Phetsuwan), ภาคีคนรักเมืองสงขลาสมาคม, Songkhla (CC BY 4.0 licence). **Limits** The source does not say how the blade is forged, and there is no listing for the steel blade, so it is named in the text.