A Bolo & Barong for Comment Please
 

Greetings all, and thanks for having me as a new member!

Through life I’ve developed an appreciation for south East Asian warrior cultures. And while I’m not a serious collector, if I come across a piece at a flee market by chance I’ll “rescue” it if within my means. Below are two of the items I’ve collected and any info would be greatly appreciated. The bolo has puzzled me quite a bit and I’ve been wondering if the blade was procured someplace other than Luzon and modified with a new hilt and file work? Above the lateral file marks on the right side of the ricasso there are the beginnings of triangular file markings that are unfinished? The barong has many signs of use, primarily parry dents and cuts along the spine as well as several cut marks to the hilt. It is razor sharp and based on the thickness of the rattan on the sheath I’ve been led to guesstimate it’s WW2 era? Regardless, any comments would be appreciated greatly and I apologize for the photos as I had trouble resizing and picking 6.

Bolo: 567g, total length 53cm, blade 38.1cm, thickness 11mm

Barong: 621g (w/o scabbard), total length 47.63cm, blade 33.0cm, thickness 7mm

Greetings,

Regarding your Luzon piece, I'd estimate it to be pre-WW2. The blade profile is called 'binacuco' or 'binakuko', and it's usually a utility blade. Several provinces in Luzon produce this kind of blade profile, so I can't pin down exactly where your blade comes from. I think it's one whole piece (and not re-hilted), I'm not knowledgeable on file-work but there are a lot of other examples that show the same hilt / blade profile configuration as yours.

Regarding your barung, the dents weren't likely from parrying. It's forbidden in BangsaMoro culture to do blade-on-blade contact; all attacks (or defense) were direct, there's no such things as blocks, except when holding a shield on the other hand. I'm not well-versed at estimating barung age yet, but I'd say WW2 to post WW2 is just about right.

Hello hicarbon:

Welcome to the Forum!

I think xasterix has pretty much nailed these two for you. The binakuko looks like pre-WWII manufacture (does anyone know where this particular hilt style originates?). The barung could be a little later, WWII era or thereabouts. Two nice pieces.

Ian

Thanks
 

Thank you both for the the feed-back. I imagine the Barong was mistreated at some point?