Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

Ian · 29th July 2016, 02:00 AM

Leif:

Those are three nice knives you have shown with well tooled leather sheaths.

I think the longest one with the broken tip is the oldest. This could well be revolutionary war period and may have seen some action in fighting with the Spanish and later U.S. occupiers. I don't see anything particularly Batangas to it, and the hilt is reminiscent of those seen from the Laguna de Pays area of Metro Manila (west central Luzon).

The Apalit bolo is also fairly old, as Detlef has noted--perhaps early 20th C. Apalit is a town in the Province of Pampanga which is close to the former Clark Air Force Base that the U.S. continued to use until Mt. Pinatubo erupted and covered it in ash. We have discussed bolos from Apalit before and you can find those discussions by using the Search Function and entering Apalit. It is interesting that your bolo is marked APALIT over MA. I have a very similarly marked bolo but it has APALIT over EB (http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=18769). These could be maker's initials.

The small dagger is also interesting. It is the youngest of the three IMO, and probably dates from the 1950s or a little later. The horses head is a popular Filipino motif, but not commonly seen on knives from Central Luzon. The triangular shaped blade, with bevel on one side, might suggest a possible Visayan origin (Cebu?). However, I am more inclined to ascribe this knife to an Ilocano craftsman. The Ilocano produce knives with similar blades to this one, and they occasionally use a horse's head on the hilt. The style of the brass cross guard and ferrule is also consistent with Ilocano work.

Thanks again for showing these interesting examples.

Ian.

29th July 2016, 02:00 AM	#10
Ian Vikingsword Staff Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: The Aussie Bush Posts: 4,037	Leif: Those are three nice knives you have shown with well tooled leather sheaths. I think the longest one with the broken tip is the oldest. This could well be revolutionary war period and may have seen some action in fighting with the Spanish and later U.S. occupiers. I don't see anything particularly Batangas to it, and the hilt is reminiscent of those seen from the Laguna de Pays area of Metro Manila (west central Luzon). The Apalit bolo is also fairly old, as Detlef has noted--perhaps early 20th C. Apalit is a town in the Province of Pampanga which is close to the former Clark Air Force Base that the U.S. continued to use until Mt. Pinatubo erupted and covered it in ash. We have discussed bolos from Apalit before and you can find those discussions by using the Search Function and entering Apalit. It is interesting that your bolo is marked APALIT over MA. I have a very similarly marked bolo but it has APALIT over EB (http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=18769). These could be maker's initials. The small dagger is also interesting. It is the youngest of the three IMO, and probably dates from the 1950s or a little later. The horses head is a popular Filipino motif, but not commonly seen on knives from Central Luzon. The triangular shaped blade, with bevel on one side, might suggest a possible Visayan origin (Cebu?). However, I am more inclined to ascribe this knife to an Ilocano craftsman. The Ilocano produce knives with similar blades to this one, and they occasionally use a horse's head on the hilt. The style of the brass cross guard and ferrule is also consistent with Ilocano work. Thanks again for showing these interesting examples. Ian.