What hilt/scabbard material on this gunong?
 

Just received this gunong, and the hilt and scabbard material has me puzzled. I don't think it's ivory, but it's a natural material. It seems to have layers, maybe some kind of tooth or tusk? It's very heavy. The pictures are from the auction. I'll get some better ones this weekend. The blade is sandwich construction, with a thin hard layer in the center. The hilt polished up and turned out to be brass, I think. Looking to learning more about this one!

Steve

More (poor) pictures.
Thanks,
Steve

hmmm....looks like ivory to me... :shrug:

nice one BTW... :)

Thanks David!
I don't have any Ivory, so I wasn't sure. Supposedly brought back from WWII, and in a closet ever since. There was thick grease on the blade and in the scabbard.

Steve

That seems about the right timeframe Steve. Looks like a nice quality piece though, not tourist junk.

I agree (and am jealous) - looks like ivory to me too.

Great piece - you are truly "Tito Gunong"! :D

Woo hoo! :D Thanks Jose!
Steve

Great piece Steve, maybe one day I will find one of these. :D Congratulations on another wonderful addition to your ever growing collection!!

Robert

Woo! That is nice. Thre red fittings-- are they Copper or suasa?

Steve

Very nice find my friend :D

Pepperskull, Some kind of copper alloy I think. The color in the pictures is a little off. They have a kind of pinkish tint in person.

Thanks Lew. It's good to hear from you buddy. :)

Steve

I drew up a very similar design for Zel years ago for a gunong scabbard (no ivory though).

Some (slightly) better pictures. I guess the scabbard trim is copper. It looks pink though. Could it be suassa?
Steve

The only way for sure to know if it is copper or swassa is to get it tested by a jeweler.

Nice pictures.

Thanks Jose. :)

Hi Steve,

lovely gunong, really beautiful piece. Is it possible to see a picture from the throat of the handle? On some pictures you posted I think to see some black dots which will be a sign for hippo ivory. :shrug:

Regards,

Detlef

I'll get a picture for you Sajen. There was a lot of grease on the scabbard from the blade. I'll clean it well and look for the black dots.
thanks,
Steve

Well, usually sausa doesn't tarnish like copper... :shrug:

But it get dark like gold also.

Hi after reading this post I read the post 'parang betino' and noticed the similar material used in the Indonesian knife; color, darker areas etc.
(for 'our' convenience I attached a pic from that post here)

Perhaps these ivory filipino handles (in general?) were carved from Asian elephant ivory? (are/were there actually any elephants native to Indonesia??)

To be clear; elephant ivory is reckognizable by diamondshapes visible at the crosscut. Whaletusk and other tooth dont show this diamondpattern at the surface of crosscut.

Maybe the Indonesian armsexperts know more???

My guess is that it some type of marine animal tusk. Since there is no sign of that herring bone criss cross pattern in the ivory I doubt that it's elephant ivory.

Steve if you can take a few extreme close up macro pics of the hilt in sun light this may help determine what it is?

Lew