weird Barung
 

here's something that got my attention. a barung with a weird shaped blade. when i first saw it, i thought someone place the blade upside down, but looking at it closely, it is what it is...
i decided to clean the blade last night, and i was pleasantly surprise to find out that it has a shandigan blade. it's light, and balanced. i also noticed that there are these symmetric dots on the blade, most likely from the billet it was originally made from. haven't tried to see if it's laminated or not.

Looks like a variant of the sipput barong.

that initially crossed my mind, jose, but the handle and the blade shape throws me off. as far as the handle, it reminds me of another Sulu barung i have. see here:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...unusual+barung

Almost seems like this one wants to be a 'barong-kung'. Certainly an interesting blade and pommel.

the more i look at it, the more it looks like it started off as a regular barung, then instead of having a curved blade, the panday decided to go straight across...

The little stones (?) set in the handle are an interesting touch I've never seen before .

wow, didn't even noticed that... thanks, Rick! here are some close ups. me thinks they're diamonds :rolleyes:

If by diamonds you mean Yakut, then I concur . ;)

haha, yup... CZ perhaps?
nevertheless, this is the first time i've seen a barung decorated with stones as well. odd in that i understand the owner wanted to jazz up his sidepiece, but i'm perplexed as to why he used jute as ferrule...

Probably rose-cut quartz; and possibly the jute wrap would recommend him as a serious fighter; a silver puunto would slip around quite a bit in a bloody hand .

These stones could be talismanic.............