My first Gunong

[russel]

Hello all,

I am very pleased to show off my first Gunong, a little beauty (IMHO). Many thanks to Detlef for advising me on this one :)

A woodworker friend is keen to know what timber the handle is made from if anyone can hazard a guess.

The silver guard is a little loose, hence the string put there by a previous owner to keep things tight: any tips on how to firm things up?

I will give the silver fittings a light polish. The blade shows a few forging flaws and scratches, would it be worth giving this a polish and etch?

Cheers, Russel

[Robert]

Hello Russel, That's a very interesting little gunong you have acquired. After a little cleaning it should really shine up nicely. I will try to answer your question as best as I can. The hilt looks to be made of narra wood to me. As for tightening up the guard, you want to tighten it up right you will have completely remove the hilt from the blade. It has most likely loosened up from the wood shrinking up over the years. Clean out any old adhesive from the tang socket and also any adhesive or rust that might be on the tang itself. Make sure that everything fits back together tightly before using a good adhesive to fix everything back together. I like to use cutlers resin when doing this as it cools and sets quickly which leads to better results than a slower setting adhesive that might let the parts shift while setting up. It is also easier to remove if something does go wrong unlike epoxy and some of the other permanent bonding agents. I think on this a nice polish and etch just might reveal a nice pattern in the blade. As for the age of this piece, because of the shape of the hilt and the robust blade I would hazard a guess that it is from the first quarter of the 20th century with a possibility of being a little older. Others here on the forum will be able to give you a more accurate estimate of the age of this piece than I can. My congratulations to you on adding your first gunong to your collection.

Best,
Robert

P.S. Now that you have bought your first one, you officially have the bug and find that you will be uncontrollably drawn to finding and purchasing more and more of these addictive little items. :D

[Sajen]

Hi Russel,

first thank you! :) Nice that Robert has confirmed my age guess. I would agree, 1900-1920 is my guess. Robert has given already a good advice for tighten up the hilt.
And I agree, polish the blade and give it an etch, the blades are normally laminated.
Very nice older gunong!

Regards,
Detlef

[Sajen]

Just want to add two pictures for comparison. The first is a gunong I get not so long ago, ivory pommel and silver fittings like by your one with nearly the same blade shape. The age was guessed by Jose to 1900-1910 and was discussed in this thread: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=17872&highlight=gunong
The second one I have sold already. It has the same blade shape again and today I know that it has get a wrong pommel shape since today I am sure that the form should have been the same like by your or my example with ivory pommel. It was discussed in this thread: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15927&page=1&pp=30&highlight=gunong

[russel]

Thanks for the comments and advice guys, much appreciated. I will take the restoration slowly, rush often risks mistakes: festina lente

First thing is to make up some cutler's resin (many recipes out there) and practice removing and refitting handles on a few less important items. I am somewhat trepidatious about heating blades to remove handles, but I know it is the only way to do it.

Thanks again, I will post images of the finished work when it's done.

ps. I think you may be right Robert: my eyes are peeled for more gunongs, I can understand the addiction. :-)

[Ferguson]

You did well. Good honest piece.

Steve

[russel]

Thanks Steve, it certainly feels made for use!

[Battara]

Nice early piece. I would put this at around 1900 or even earlier (according to Federico's rendering) if I read the pommel right.

The pommel material is the narra wood, which is in the region, and from the inner part of the tree root (hence the burl). The closest equivalent is padauk from Africa, a cousin to the narra tree, which resembles the inner red of the narra tree. Both darken with age.