Junggayan Barung

[tanaruz]

Hello,

Happy New Year to all!

My first acquired blade for 2022- a Junggayan Sulu (tausug)barung:

1) possible age/era?

The scabbard is newly made (by the former owner)- but I'm thinking of having a new one made that would be more 'fitting' and 'moro-like).

kind regards,

Yves

[Ian]

Hi Yves,

It's hard to see the pommel and hilt. Can you show a larger image of the hilt please, without so much shadow? From what is the "ferrule" made?

Ian.

[tanaruz]

Hello,

Hilt pics.

Regards

Yves

[Ian]

Hello Yves.

Thanks for the additional pictures of the hilt which, as you indicated, is a 19th C junggayan form. The usual metal punto seems to have been replaced by a cloth wrap coated with a clear polyurethane or perhaps a two-part isocyanate polymer (such as Araldite(R)) to give it strength and hardness. It appears that the Kakatua pommel was once broken and has been repaired skillfully.