Guys:
I hear what you are saying, but you have not addressed the points that bother me about the attribution of this knife to the northern Philippines.
1. Do any of your examples have a flat side and an opposite side that has been ground to the edge (NOT chisel ground)?
2. Do any of your examples have a hilt with an ovoid (pear-shaped, tear drop) cross section?
3. Who among us has the experience to say this does or does not come from another Spanish colonial setting?
Our substantial familiarity with Philippines weapons outweighs our collective ignorance about other Spanish colonial weapons. When I posted this one on SFI, Juan Perez (who moderates the Spanish language part of that forum) suggested other Spanish colonial origins as possibilities. My concern is that we are comfortable with what we know about familiar topics, but we have little understanding of what we don't know about unfamiliar topics. That is a form of bias (or self-deception) for which Ruel would rightly chastise us -- it is one of the fallacies of inductive reasoning.
Tom, I will rephrase some of my questions and be more specific in the next few days. Not a lot of time right now to write at length. In the meanwhile, would you look through some of the dozens of pictures of Philippine weapons from the Visayas and Luzon on this site, and point out ones that illustrate the transitions you mention? I'm thinking we are talking at cross purposes on some of these issues.
I will also try to post some better pictures of the hilt and blade of the knife above in the next couple of days. I'm away from home at the moment.
Ian.
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