Significance of blacksmith marks/tang stamps on Philippines swords
 

Significance of blacksmith marks/tang stamps on Philippines swords

Posting some Philippines swords with smith marks. Wondering if any forum members have swords from same shop/maker and where the shops are located? Top is obvious - Abra, Luzon. Former owner actually bought the knife while in Guam. Second is rusty and discolored but you can make out the “S” smith mark. Has cast aluminum fittings. Third is maybe “WC” or “OM” or backwards C and M? Last is a really nice sword, one of my favorites right now. Clean horse hoof-shaped horn hilt. Blade is marked “B5M”. I’ve had three or four knives marked “APALIT” but not currently. Hoping forum members recognize some of these?

Hi WW,

Some nice swords and knives you have shown. I can help with a couple of your questions. The third one from the top is from the Batangas-Lake Taal area. I have seen the same mark on other swords from there. I don't recall seeing the other marks that you show.

The "APALIT" stamp refers to the town of Apalit in Batangas Province. It was, and still is, a knife-making area. There is further information about Apalit on this site. If you use the search function, you should find it quickly. It is perhaps noteworthy that Apalit was not far from the former US Air Force base near Mt Pinatubo and the naval base at Subic Bay. A fair number of Apalit knives found there way back to the U.S. as a result.

The "ABRA" inscription may refer to the Province of Abra in the far north of Luzon. It's adjacent to Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur, being the traditional homelands of the Ilokano people. If your knife came from this general area, then it is almost certainly Ilokano in manufacture. The style of blade is consistent with traditional Ilokano use, although it is a strong utilitarian blade that is found elsewhere in the Philippines as well.

The person here who can probably help the most with answers to your questions is Xasterix and I hope he will drop by soon and give you some feedback.

The one with S is from Pangasinan, the seller of mine is from Dagupan. Here are some of my blades with S mark.

Here is another mark that might be of interest. The identical single letter "P" appears on two of these knives from Laguna. The two with the mark have the same brass ferrules also. Highly likely that these two were made by the same panday. The scabbards have minor differences and are not identical.


.

Nice Knives. What is the age range of those?

Here's one that I sold to Xas.. :)
You can't read it too easily from this photo, but it is JC

Hi Drac. I would say pre-WWII. You can see very similar knives and sheaths on this old stereoscopic picture that likely dates from the 1920s or thereabouts. The strong guy husking the coconut is wearing a sheath similar to the ones shown in my pics.

I'm told by Xasterix that the style of these knives had fallen out of favor somewhat and that Laguna panday today are looking to rediscover old styles and methods.


.

Hi Rick. The JC mark is an old one from Batangas. It stands for Jesu Cristo (Jesus Christ). That knife is probably early 20th C. Xas has a nice sinampolok sword from circa 1900 with the same mark that he bought from me.

Thanks for the info Ian; even though the blades looked early, I wasn't aware that the sword smiths signed their work prior to WW2. A very useful revelation.