UNUSUAL MORO BARONG
 

I SAW A SIMILAR BARONG WITH THE GUARD BUILT INTO THE BLADE IN THE MUSEUM IN SABAH MALAYSIAN BORNEO IN 2001. THIS EXAMPLE IS THE SECOND I HAVE SEEN UNFORTUNATELY I DON'T HAVE A PICTURE OF THE OTHER ONE. HAS ANYONE ELSE SEEN THIS FORM BEFORE?

Hi Barry, this is a Maranao barong.

Yes I have seen this form before, and the okir is Maranao. This one appears somewhat later to me, like WWII.

How and why the Marano have a barong, I can only guess that it was a later Sulu influence? I have not seen earlier examples of Maranao barong so far.

HERE IS ANOTHER UNUSUAL BARONG WITH ENGRAVING ON BOTH SIDES OF THE 17 INCH BLADE. I HAD HOPED TO GIVE IT A NICE OLD IVORY POMMEL I HAVE BUT THE SNIPERS GOT ME AT THE LAST MILLISECOND. IT HAS A LEATHER SHEATH WITH THE SAME PATTERN AS ON THE BLADE. PERHAPS THIS POST CAN SERVE AS A PLACE FOR POSTS ON UNUSUAL BARONGS.

Yeah I noticed this on eprey.

At first it looked like an earlier Sulu blade, but the engraving looks more Visayan to me.

Perhaps a Sulu blade in the hands of a Visayan Filipino? (might explain the leather sheath).

I agree that the vegetative engraving to the blade doesn't look Moro.

The leather sheath looks Occidental.

Is that a Chinese chop mark at the base of the engraving?
I like this blade, hard to tell but it looks like it's hollow ground, with a long silver ferrule.
Congrats to the winning bidder.

YOU HAVE A GOOD EYE. I HAD NOT NOTICED THE MARK IN THE LAST PICTURE AND IT DOES LOOK LIKE A CHINESE MARK. A GOOD ATTRACTIVE OLDER BARONG THAT HAS AN INTERESTING STORY IF IT COULD ONLY TALK, I HOPE SOMEONE HAS PLANS TO GIVE IT A GOOD RESTORATION.

The coins also look Chinese to me.......

They are Japanese.

Kino was referring to the second Barong.

I wanted that first barong so bad, but it went super high. I settled for an ivory Kris a few days later for a fraction of that (and then the beak broke in transit dut to poor packing)

In-remembrance of Vandoo's posting
 

Sorry, it took a while.

I own 7 Chinese? chopped marked Barongs, 6 are mono-steel including this one.

This is an unusual barong Christian. But I do like the engraved floral design on the blade, which looks more Visayan to me. I also wonder about the hilt - not typical Tausug style.

Again Jose, none of us are expert, all we can do is asume, and asume is sometimes d' mo'tha of all .... Where ever that blade is from it look Moro to me. Now, if someone can show me leaf blade shape Visayan, un-modifield, then I will believe you.

The ferrule was from an old beat-up barong that I collected 10 years ago (ebay) and I still have the photo up to now.

The pommel was from a friend's Barong collection it was cracked in several pieces so he sold it to me. Glued sanded and buffed. Now, it looks new but it looks good to me.

I think Battara meant that the floral design is Visayan, not the blade.


I find it interesting that the blade is mono steel, perhaps the blade is chrome plated. The color looks somewhat odd, unless it’s just the lighting.
I have a Barong that didn’t exibit a pattern post etch, later to find out that it was chrome plated.

R.I.P. Vandoo

I find it interesting that the blade is mono steel, perhaps the blade is chrome plated. The color looks somewhat odd, unless it’s just the lighting.
I have a Barong that didn’t exibit a pattern post etch, later to find out that it was chrome plated.[/QUOTE]

No, the blade was not chrome plated. The acid reacts to the blade right away when etched but it just gives a grayish color just like the other five. I had chrome plated blades in the past, headache hand scraping it with sanding paper as it slides through it, same thing when etching it. I had to ship the blades it to a parkerizing shop in Colo. to have the chrome removed.

This Barong blade was lightly cleaned with 1000grt wet/dry soap and water, and then hand buffed with Mothers Aluminum Polisher. I do this to all my blades. If it need etching, I re-wash it with soap and water, alcohol wipe it to remove impurities, heat the blade, and then acid etch. Learned that from DaveS. ;)

Btw, regarding the Visayan floral theory on the blade, I won this beat-up Barong a little over 10 yrs now from e-bay, blade was very thick 11mm it also have that Chinese chop mark easy call 19th C., the ferrule was all floral engraved, that is what I had used on this Barong, so I don't know?

Again, it's been 18 fascinating yrs, thanks to my first teacher RonS, still learning day to day....

Thank you Albert.

Also, some times these "Chinese" marks are not Chinese at all but placed to look like it came from a Chinese smith to raise the value of the blade itself, just like "Andrea Ferrara" on Scottish basket hilt swords.

Since I don't read Chinese, I can't tell if this is truly Chinese script or not. Perhaps one of our members can tell us for sure (and perhaps translate it if Chinese?).

BTW - Christian you did a nice job on the restoration.