Tom,
An observation on the "arrowhead" feature of your sword. If you look at the direction the arrow is pointing, on your sword it is pointing towards the greneng side of the blade. Traditional archaic kris (and more recent revival examples) have the arrow pointing towards the gandhik side of the blade. The same is true for Malay sundang based on the examples I have seen.
This is a minor point, but I think it highlights that by the late 19th and early 20th C the skills in creating the traditional arrowhead design on these swords had degraded quite considerably, to the point that a mistake could be made in its orientation on the blade. The carving of the sogokan on this blade is also non-traditional, but of a form that seems to have emerged in the late 19th and early 20th C among both Moro and Melayu kris makers.
Attached is a pic of an archaic kris with the traditional arrowhead carving and orientation compared with your sword.
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