thanks for that tidbit, Barry, in regards to the symbols on the blade. it's definitely not ukkil (except for the ones closest to the tip), or any talismanic symbols I've seen. that would make a lot of sense. the pommel part of the handle could also be construed as a dragon, rather than the deity pommel we see on Visayan swords. Sulu has a large Chinese population. the blade material is another clue. we see a few of those blades with Chinese chopmarks signifying a better quality metal. btw, this wasn't even etched, rather, it was ran through hot water, dried, and applied with mineral oil. also, with the D-guard on the handle, the overall profile is somewhat similar to a Chinese butterfly knife.
so that's another possibility, that this piece was made for a Chinese that immigrated to Sulu, or a Chinese that has sword making knowledge from the old country and made a facsimile of a barung for himself.
Jose, didn't realize this was on ebay. I picked this up last week somewhere in North Carolina on my way to the Outer Banks, lol.
Ian, good point on the scabbard. The quillion does interfere with it going all the way in, but otherwise, it fits just right. I don't think it's original either. Another possibility: it fit, so the original owner decided to recycle and reused it, or it could've been added later on by a collector
. I can see why you're thinking that this has been Frankensteined somehow since it doesn't fit in any of Cato's classification, or a Moro/Filipino counterpart of Gil Hibben back in the olden days that decided to make a fantasy sword (btw, that came in much, much later, and you can see all of these around Ermita). I'm hesitant to label this as a "Visayan mess" either. a few things:
1) The handle is carved from banati wood. I'm not saying it's never been done, but I've never seen any Visayan handle made from this wood. it could be a first, but I highly doubt this. it has a similar hue with old barung handles, something that can only be achieved with time.
2) The handle wrap is Moro in style. the few times I've seen twines used by Visayans as a grip was wrapped in a very simple manner, as in one pass and not weaved like this piece:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showpo...64&postcount=7 (bottom pic)
on weaved grips, rattans are used in Cebu, Samar and Leyte. even that's not as complicated as the way this was weaved.
3) The palias (talismanic "x" and hash marks) on the spine is a common practice throughout the archipelago. you can see some of these on a few panabas
4) The overall blade design is definitely not Visayan. and another thing, it doesn't have a chiseled edge. i'll give you the clipped point part of it, but then again, some Moro blades have those as well. as for the size, here's a barung for comparison. at the wide point, it's about 3/16 of an inch difference.