Do I have a Garab?

[Ferguson]

I bought this "PHILIPPINE JUNGLE MACHETE WW11" on Ebay for a pittance. It's 24" long, and tapers from .388" (3/8", or 9.86mm) at the hilt. The hilt is nicely carved kamagong? Where the hilt is normally wrapped with rattan, it has an old leather covering held on with a brass strap. The blade is beveled on the right side and flat on the other. The beveled side shows nice laminations. The flat side of the blade etches almost completely dark. I was completely stunned to find the laminated blade.

Below are some poor pictures taken inside tonight.
Thanks for looking. Comments welcome!
Steve

[Ferguson]

Auction pictures.

[VANDOO]

YEP! A VERY NICE GARAB/ TALIBON IT IS UNUSUAL TO SEE THE ETCHED BLADE SHOWING THE FORGEING ON THESE. BUT I WOULD NOT BE SURPRIZED IF QUITE A FEW HAVE THE WATERED STEEL BLADES THAT ARE NOT SHOWING. A GOOD SIZED ONE WITH VERY NICE CARVING AND PATINA ON THE HANDLE. CONGRADULATIONS. :)

[Robert]

Yes, that is a very nice garab you have there Steve and now I know who it was that outbid me on it. :D I thought my initial bid on it was much higher, so from now on I need to pay more attention to the emails sent by my bidding service when they come. Wonderful carving on the hilt and a good laminate blade to boot. The leather wrap is quit different though and I thought (when looking at the original auction photos) that it might have been a metal wrap of some kind. Anyway, my sincere congratulations to you on this very nice addition to your collection.

Best,
Robert

[David]

Wow Steve, that's a very fine catch! :)

[Sajen]

Congratulations Steve! That's the second one in short time with laminated blade! Nice that the beautiful carved handle isn't broken.

Regards,

Detlef

[CharlesS]

Great example Steve, and one of the finest blades on one I have seen. Congrats!

[Battara]

Steve I agree with what everyone said. congratulations on a great piece!

On the one hand it would have been great to have the scabbard.

On the other hand I have seen on very rare occasion garab/talibon that have metal (brass or silver) on the hilts. The carving is superb and it has brass on the hilt, a truly rare variant (never mind the laminated blade).

[Ferguson]

Thank all of you gentlemen for your comments. I feel extremely lucky to have picked up this piece. Looking at the recent pictures of your wonderful Garab, made me more attuned to the Visayan pieces. I now have Tenegre, Binangon, bolo from Iloilo, and now the Garab. Maybe a Visayan family portrait soon!

Battara, I have a feeling that the brass strip and leather covering was a repair by someone to replace the missing rattan covering. But it doesn't look recent.

Thanks again,

Steve

[kino]

What a handsome sword. Good job on the clean up. Congrats on a good catch.

[kai]

Hello Steve,

Could you also show the reverse side of the blade, please?


Where the hilt is normally wrapped with rattan, it has an old leather covering held on with a brass strap.
The leather does look aged but doesn't seem to show the expected wear from actual usage. I'd hazard the guess that this was a repair attempt, possibly by someone out of the originating culture. Neat piece regardless - congrats!


The blade is beveled on the right side and flat on the other. The beveled side shows nice laminations. The flat side of the blade etches almost completely dark.
This is the usual construction with the thin steel plate forged to the opposite side of the blade later receiving the bevel: buttered slice of bread rather than a sandwich. ;)

I was completely stunned to find the laminated blade.
I believe that many, if not most, antique Visayan blades will prove to be laminated if more people would care to check!

Not all will show such a bold contrast though (e. g. I have a laminated blade that is a pig to etch resulting in only faint laminations on the beveled side; need to try again).

Regards,
Kai

[kai]

Hello Jose,

On the other hand I have seen on very rare occasion garab/talibon that have metal (brass or silver) on the hilts.
Any chance that you could post pics, please?

The carving is superb
Agreed that the pommel is very nicely carved; and intact ones are not common anymore (if they ever were)!

Regards,
Kai

[Battara]

Hello Jose,


Any chance that you could post pics, please?

Sorry I would love to, but this was years ago when I didn't think to have film in a camera. It was at a gun and knife show. 2 garab of wood and each had brass embellishments on them, each a different in style on each, but there along with the wood carvings. Again very rare.

I suppose looking back it is possible that there may have been some brass to cover repair work.......

[Ferguson]

Kai,


The second picture is the reverse of the blade. It shows all high carbon steel to within about 1/2" of the spine. The spine shows laminations.


I agree about the leather repair. It does not look like an indigenous repair. I thought about a simple rattan wrap, but decided to leave it in the state that I found it.

Thanks,
Steve