Hei guys, I would like to add few information on indonesian part just like our dear vando on MALAYSIAN PARTS and other member
I've been hunting down the old tradisional mandau blacksmith for almost a year till now, and i was lucky when one of my assosiate found old blacksmith (71 years olds ) in deep & remote area in kutai about 16 hours on the road from samarinda. I belief he is might be the one of last mandau tradisional blacksmith in this century
For making 1 mandau its took him about 2 month to completed from choosing the Ulin Wood, Steel, Forging & tempering, carving, to finishing. Before he start making the mandau, he asking some personal stuff such as birthdate, marital status,etc to me. Almost similiar like empu when they making the keris.
Before we found him, all we found in east, south and west kalimantan ( borneo ) are mandau that made to be sold ( souvenir pieces ). What we found is exactly like information from vando and other member.
Souvenir Pieces
They are some few trick to make mandau look old / ages ( i know this because i try some these trick ) most popular trick is by place the mandau and other artefak in open air for couple of year till the blade rusty and the wood aged. The same kind of trick happen to keris.
As far as I know, the most marketable weaponry for indonesia is keris and mandau / parang. Since couple years ago till today, a lot of greedy people hunting down these weaponry. So the old & antique became more and more difficult to find. And the same time none of the young generation have the skill and interest to make high quality ones. I Belief ( strongly ) in the future the traditional values of these amazing pieces will fade away
To my dear CollectingNewbie, personally i would like to thanks you for fallin in love with amazing mandau
You are not alone, the first mandau that i ever have is souvenir ones
since that i cann't stop loving mandau.
Just my 2 cent, thanks to other member for their opinion