Large slender Moro knife

[Ian]

This one just finished online and will be coming my way in the next few days.

It has an unusual blade for a Moro knife, being considerably narrower than a barung and perhaps more suited to stabbing than cutting. The silver punto and banati wood hilt are similar to what are seen on many barung.

Attached are several of the seller's pictures. The blade appears to be laminated but I'm not sure I can see a hardened edge. It's possible that this is a reworked barung, possibly one that suffered some serious edge damage. The cutting edge is angled adjacent to the punto, perhaps indicating that the original blade profile was wider than now.

According to the seller's description:OAL = 19 7/8 inches
Blade = 14 1/8 inches
The hilt style suggests early 20th C manufacture.

Ian

[kai]

Hello Ian,

It has an unusual blade for a Moro knife, being considerably narrower than a barung and perhaps more suited to stabbing than cutting. The silver punto and banati wood hilt are similar to what are seen on many barung.
<snip>
It's possible that this is a reworked barung, possibly one that suffered some serious edge damage. The cutting edge is angled adjacent to the punto, perhaps indicating that the original blade profile was wider than now.
It sure does look like a reworked barung - did you ask the seller how thick the blade is?

I doubt this will make an efficient dagger. Unless the blade has been thinned out a lot, it should still have enough mass for many cutting purposes. I'd guess it would serve well as a general purpose bolo...

The pommel is carved from nicely selected wood; I'd agree that this is an early version of the modern style, probably dating to the first quarter of the 20th c.

Regards,
Kai

[Battara]

Yes I noticed this and thought it too was a cut up barong. Must have been either a very bad forging flaw or some kind of heavy damage.

[Ian]

It arrived today and is definitely a former barung. The blade is heavy and thick at the hilt (approximately 5/16 inch or 7 mm). There are numerous sharp nicks to the spine of the blade suggesting it has seen some use as a weapon. My guess is that the blade failed during use, perhaps a significant delamination from a forging flaw, and someone decided to take out the offending section and reuse what was left. The edge has been sharpened although the remaining steel may be fairly mild--any hardened edge originally is now gone.

I will post pictures shortly.

Ian