Filipino Knife
 

Here is the second piece to my collection. A knife from a Negrito tribe off the main island of Luzon in the Philippines. I purchased this piece out of a large collection which contained a Luzon Shield, spears, bow and arrows, and swords and knives. I have pictures of the entire collection as well, or can be found online here:

The knife is in a full wooden sheath and a marking is visible on the blade. Anyone know what this mark signifies? All questions, and clarification/classification would be greatly appreciated.

Looks like a recently made northern Luzon piece, but not sure.

The marks on the blade are probably the mark of the bladesmith, sort of like a trademark. This is a common practice of modern knife makers in the Philippines. I hope this helps.

thanks again Nonoy, it helps me a little bit. its actually a practice that blade/knife makers practice do worldwide. Kind of like the Japanese did to their samurai blades. When American soldiers brought them back from world war 2, many blades were found to be cut shorter. This was done so that the new soldier could meet their military standards with their families passed down samurai sword. and thus cutting off part of the blade makers trademark.

When you say modern.....from what time are you speaking of, from the 30's? 60's? 10's? When did Filipinos start trademarking/signing approximately?


And if its a common practice, does ANYBODY know if there is a database of some sort that catalogs these markings? ? ? ? ? ?
AND if not...... I will be happy to start one in hopes of helping others identify their blade makers knife, as well as mine.

Maybe we can rename this thread and do it here, of course I am open to suggestions.

John, the piece is probably around the time when a good market was created around the US Bases in Subic. American soldiers bought all sorts of stuff being sold to them by enterprising locals. 1960's to 1980s.

Your idea of undertaking a study of Philippine blade marks would be pioneering. Where are you based? Let us email.

As Nonoy Tan has pointed out, maker's marks on Filipino blades is more a practice of "modern" knife makers. You will rarely find them on older blades and this is not because they have been shortened and removed. You occasionally find imported Chinese made barongs blades that have Chinese characters that are probably maker's marks, but not very often on the locally made blades.
Your blade is obviously post WWII due to the materials used like the aluminum decorations on the hilt, but i agree with Nonoy that it more likely dates for the 1960-80s period.
I don't want to dissuade you from creating a database of Philippines maker's marks, but frankly most collectors here are far more interested in pre-WWII blades on which you are unlikely to find any maker's mark at all.