Names of north Luzon blades
 

This pertains to the blades of north Luzon, specifically the Ilocos region.

We see the region's blades often, and we just call them by generic names. I've stumbled upon a book [Tawid: The Living Treasures of Ilocos Sur, 2010], that gives them their names, in the local Ilocano dialect:

kinakandon: a blade which form was inspired by the palay (rice plant) leaf => am still getting a photo of this blade

ganado: "has a rounded blade end and slightly arched body and is used for cutting tree branches"

innigat: "has rounded blade end akin to the shape of an eel's head and is used for clearing field grasses and shrubs"

linipit: hilt has a twirl design

minanabo: "has a straight back edge and slightly curving blade but pointed end and is used for cutting meat and butchering animals"

sinan-babbai or sinan-gabrielasilang or gabriela: the hilt has a woman figure with a native hemispherical hat; by the way, 'Gabriela' or 'Gabriela Silang' refers to the famous 18th century Ilocos heroine

sinan-bukelbukel - hilt has circular or spherical elements in the design

sinan-kapitan or Antonio Luna: the hilt has a human head figure, with an officer's cap; Antonio Luna is a Philippine Revolution hero incidentally

sinan-paddak: hilt has a horse or carabo hoof design (at the pommel)

sinan-sabong: hilt has a partially-open flower design (at the pommel) => this is probably the most often-seen hilt form among Luzon blades

sinan-tattao: generic name for a blade where the pommel is made in the likeness of a human being (would thus include the sinan-babbai and sinan-kapitan swords)

sinan-tutot: "is long with a 2.5 inch-body that tapers into a sharply pointed end and is also used for cutting meat but usually carried in a belt as weapon against venomous snakes"

A page from the book is below, together with pics of some of the above blades.

very interesting, sir!

I was not aware the nomenclaure for these blades were so comprehensive as they are.

Dedication
 

Lorenz,

Your dedication and tenacity shown in building a world class reference site as you have done and your continuous and informative input about weapons of the Philippines in these pages are an absolute credit to you.

Best regards

Gavin

Thanks, Gav!

The site continues to be a work-in-progress. As for the content, from time to time I refer to EAAF. Thus credit is also due EAAF. Finally just for everybody's info I write in Filipino in there, because my target audience is primarily my countrymen, most of which are not familiar with their rich martial and edged weapons heritage. Let's see if I can get more of them to get interested in our traditional arms.

Thanks again :)