Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - The Moro Sabre: Questioning the Reason for its Existence

KuKulzA28 · 19th July 2014, 11:12 PM

I'm with Timo in that it might be a perfectly fine weapon in the right hands...

My thought is that if the point of balance is appropriate for a blade of its weight and length it could still be a good fighter... now I don't know on average how the blade quality is, but it's indisputable that many Moro smiths could make quality blades...

The spine being 1/8" isn't too much of a problem for cutting (in and of itself)... my Legitimus Collins machete whose blade width tapers to a sharp point (like a pinute), definitely a spine thickness less than 1/4", cuts very well, the thin tip helps.. It is a very quick cutter... but I would trust my golok or laraw to chop through bone easier, with thicker, heavier blades...

I think maybe it was an exotic blade, perhaps Moros with more influence or connection with foreign Muslims might have encountered tulwars, shamshirs, etc. and may have desired something similar? Afterall piso podang weren't necessarily common blades but were definitely used in Sumatra and Borneo...

19th July 2014, 11:12 PM	#4
KuKulzA28 Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: between work and sleep Posts: 731	I'm with Timo in that it might be a perfectly fine weapon in the right hands... My thought is that if the point of balance is appropriate for a blade of its weight and length it could still be a good fighter... now I don't know on average how the blade quality is, but it's indisputable that many Moro smiths could make quality blades... The spine being 1/8" isn't too much of a problem for cutting (in and of itself)... my Legitimus Collins machete whose blade width tapers to a sharp point (like a pinute), definitely a spine thickness less than 1/4", cuts very well, the thin tip helps.. It is a very quick cutter... but I would trust my golok or laraw to chop through bone easier, with thicker, heavier blades... I think maybe it was an exotic blade, perhaps Moros with more influence or connection with foreign Muslims might have encountered tulwars, shamshirs, etc. and may have desired something similar? Afterall piso podang weren't necessarily common blades but were definitely used in Sumatra and Borneo...