Barong Junggayan Restoration Process
 

Greetings!

As per request by the owner of this barong (who wishes to remain anonymous), this post will be of the process of my restoration efforts for this barong.

When I received this barong, I found that the dark pommel was made of horn, but with some ivory and later cheap and poorly worked bone pieces. You will also notice that one side of the underside of the pommel is a later dark wood replacement (without ivory or bone).

The "nose" of the pommel was partially carved on one side but unfinished on the other.

On the top of the pommel was a section made of 2 poorly carved pieces of bone.

On the hilt, one silver band was missing and the other was missing a part and broken, with an ugly attempt of lead soft soldering. The bottom of the punto was dented.

Part of the process was to get some pre-ban ivory "bark" for the middle of the top and replacement ivory plugs. I had to make a new boring tool to cut out the ivory dots:

Here is the horn pommel with out the later poorly carved bone replacements, and without the later wood replacement section:

So I cut the ivory and fit it for the top of the pommel.

I also got a piece of horn, cut it to fit, and then drilled holes and placed the plugs within them.

Here are the pictures:

(Later I also cut and placed the ivory triangles to fit. I then polished the horn and ivory.)

Now for the bands:

I had to remake one from scratch too match the others.

The second band was partially salvageable, so I remade the broken and lead soldered section (you can't hard solder with lead - it eats through the silver). I then hard soldered the new section to the old section, and then stamped and chased that section to match the rest of the band.

(I also added a small rounded extra band between the pommel and the hilt.)

After I then pierced the nose and finished carving it, I polished everything, and here it is:

That definitely looks a lot better, good work there. Also curious...your opinion on tagua nut for inlay (not on this piece of course but in general)?

Thank you. Took a lot of time (several steps not mentioned in this).

Tagua nut - really hard stuff. Seems like a good substitute for old ivory, though not for large pieces since Tagua nuts are not that large.

What can I say beyond wonderful work as always Jose. It seems unusual that the nose/beak was only partly finished though and it makes me wonder why the carver left it that way? If you don't mind, could you email me with where you found the ivory bark as I am in need of a small piece to finish a project piece (a small gunong) of my own. Again, great work.

Best,
Robert

Hello Jose,

agree, great job you have done, you have given back this barong the beauty it should have.

Can you post a picture from up of the pommel after your work of polishing?
And can you tell if the blade is laminated?

The owner of this barong will be more as happy with your work and his restored barong.

Hope that my one: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ghlight=barong will look similar good when once finished.

Regards,
Detlef

Thank you folks.

Yes the blade was laminated. I had to polish out some later vise teeth marks in the blade. However the owner wanted to etch the blade himself.

Sajen - thank you for reminding me of my little gaf: I forgot to post the top of the pommel. As per request, I also placed a polished horn inlay inside the ivory inlay, like some of these examples have.

Here is that picture:

Yes Robert, both the owner and I agree with you. The other side was even rougher, so I had to do a lot of carful work on that side to pierce, shape, and polish it into an okie form.

FYI - I had to fill in places with filler as well.

It was a BIG project.




PS - Robert you have PM :D

Great work Jose! Love seeing the process! Thanks for sharing!

Very nice Jose! :) Like said, the owner will be very happy with the result!

Regards,
Detlef