Magical Kampilan
 

after seeing battara's Kampy, i felt the urge to post this beaut. for some reason, Kampilans don't get as much exposure as the krises and barungs..

sometimes, acquiring a particular piece is an adventure itself.
i saw this kampilan a few months ago on an online auction. being a sucker for moro blades with mystical symbols, i decided to bid on the lot (this was being auction with some other moro blades). well, cheap that i am, i was left in the dust. fast forward a couple weeks after that, i was talking to a fellow forumite and i happened to mention that auction. i also mentioned about how i got beat on that one lot. come to find out, he won that particular lot, and he was actually gunning for a different blade. so, make a long story short, i ended up with one cool kampy...

I have always wonder why kampilans blades were not prime candidate when it comes to having talismanic symbols on the blade. i have one, but i haven't seen another one ever since, and never saw one that has a naga symbol on it., until this one popped up.
This particular piece is a beast, size wise. largest and heaviest i've ever handled. just the blade itself is 33 inches long, with about close to a quarter inch thickness closest to the handle. very hefty piece. i've included a picture comparing my largest kampilan before i acquired this. the symbols are inlayed in silver. one thing peculiar is the plainness of the handle. it's also missing grips on the handle, something i'm pretty sure it wasn't there from the beginning. i notice this same pattern (decorated blade, plain handle) on my naga kris. i wonder if there's a correlation to this?

Awesome kampillan! :rolleyes:

I bet it's a heavy one!

Great pick up...congrats!

It's kampillan week on the forum and I LOVE it!

Nice piece Ron. Now your talismanic inlay collection is complete.

I sure do love kamping! :D

A very nice Kampilan!!! Magical indeed.
Until now I've never seen a naga on a Kamp blade. Lucky for you the auction winner didn't want this Kampilan. Networking pays off. Congrats.

Nice catch!

They are rare but now and then they show up.
I found my naga kampilan 1,5 years ago on ebay and the seller was another member of this forum.

Michael

thanks for posting your piece, michael!
questions: does the other side has the same symbols? what is the length of the blade? also, looking at the handle, it appears to be missing the grips as well. do you think it never had it, or it just came off?

Hi Ron,

The blade is 32" and the whole sword is 42 1/2.
It has the some motifs on both sides and I suspect, like you do, that the handle has lost the grip.
Did not all kampilans use to have it?

Michael

thanks for the dimension. it looks like you got a beefy one as well!
I'm not jumping to that conclusion yet, regarding all kampilans had grips at one point or another. yes, we see a lot with no grips, and easily attribute that to having coming off, but it seems some that i've come across seems to have not having any telltale signs that it had some type of wrap at all.

I have seen both, with and without grips. Usually if they have grips it is either of rattan or sometimes of twine.

I did have one once with Maranao cloth before.........

In any case it would be hard not to slip with just bare wood.