A Beautifully Laminated Barong/Barung
This old Moro barong/barung is a recent purchase, and when it arrived it was a very nice surprise. I knew it was an old, perhaps 19th century, Tausug Moro or Samal Moro barong in a later, mid-20th-century, scabbard. What I did not anticipate was the outstanding quality of the beautifully laminated blade. The laminations are very precisely done and almost remind one of the rings in a tree trunk...I even wonder if that was the inspiration for this sort of pattern weld. This is one of the rarer forms of pattern welding on a Moro barong blade; I believe only a twistcore pattern weld on a barong is rarer.
Dimensions:
Overall: 26in./66cm.
Blade length: 17in./43cm.
Widest point of the blade: 2.75in./7cm.
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