Punal, Gunong with and unusual blade
 

I just acquired this punal which appeared to me, in my limited experience to have a very large and unusual blade.I have encompassed larger blades, but not as substantial; it measures almost 11.75" long, 2.25"wide and 3/8" thick at the base of the medial ridge (in the middle).It is razor sharp.

Very, very nice! There are others with similar length, see for example here: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ghlight=gunong

Regards,
Detlef

And the handle looks like tridacna (sp?) shell.

That's really a beautiful example. :)

Very nice! I have a couple that large but NICE large ones are fairly unusual. Another is at
Large gunong

Steve

Thank you both for the compliments ;Detlef, thanks for pointing out an earlier post on these punals.I agree that mine is very similar, yet I can not stress how heavy the blade is.
Rick, I was wondering what the material was.It didn't feel like resin, or bone or ivory; I never considered shell.Do they grind it up and reform it into the shape of a handle?

Thanks Steve, they sure do look like a match .

Yes, look for example here: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...light=tridacna

These are giant shells - the material is more like finely layered lime stone than MOP and can be carved; it's quite brittle and usually shows some inclusions/irregularities.

If it is cold to the touch and feels more like stone than ivory, then giant clam is the best guess.

Regards,
Kai

I think you and Rick are correct ; even at room temperature, if I put the handle on my face, it feels very cool.

Ones like this nice one with it's blade size, pistol grip style, and embellishments (bling - which I like :D), indicate to me that this piece may come from the mid to late 1920s. Obviously this once belonged to a datu (or at least datu class). Based on the okir on the silver mounts, this might be perhaps Maranao in origin.

Thanks for the information.

Very nice gunong! :)

Larger gunongs tend to be the new post WWII blades, but i agree with José that this on is certainly pre-WWII and the 1920s seems a fair enough assessment. So for its age i'd say that the length of the blade is indeed unusual.
Also, as Rick noted, the hilt looks like tridacna, which from my experience tends to be rarer than ivory for such use. It's giant clam shell Drak, so they carve it whole. It is not ground up and reformed.
Nice score and a great addition to your collection!

Thanks for the imput.I got lucky on this one as it wasn't even on the table, but the guy recognized me and said "you are the guy that likes that funny stuff, right?"); we went to his car and I ended up with it .