[kai]

Hello Maurice,

Congrats, neat find! Looks like a southern Sulu piece to me - interesting chubby blade with really nice scabbard.

The crosspiece is made of banati wood (also the pommel). The bottom part of the scabbard is different wood (probably to lower the costs at that time).

It's common to utilize a lighter and more durable wood for the stem of a scabbard - bunti is too fragile and heavy to do the whole scabbard from.

There are two "old" holes in the crosspiece, and the crosspiece is attached with some kind of rope (maybe latter?) to the bottom part of the scabbard, wounded with ratan.

This looks like an old make-shift repair to me to safe the precious crosspiece - not sure this is Moro work though. BTW, are that iron nails where the lighter fiber/rattan thread is attached to? I'm wondering why this patinated differently than the hurried rattan binding just below (which should be of the same age). Is there any wear which would suggest that this piece saw continued usage after the repair rather than immediately finding its way into a colonial collection?

I'd posit that the scabbard once had silver bands at the junction as well as the foot which got removed/salvaged after the break. I'd also guess that there once was a silver ferrule at the base of the hilt...

I try to clean and etch the blade in short time if I find a little time, and than I will post additional images here after cleaning.

Thanks, I'm looking forward to seeing more details of the unusual blade! Its short length and chubby proportions make me wonder wether this could have been a boy's ceremonial kris...

Regards,
Kai