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Originally Posted by kronckew
looking thru the old stuff here, found the attached sundangs with an asang/baca that is not attached to the grip at all, strengthening frederico's assertion they are there to hold the ganja onto the blade and not the blade to the grip.
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Wayne, these blades that you have posted on this post are NOT Moro blades. They are modern creations out of Jawa that mimic the Moro (i am not sure i would even call them Indonesian sundangs. They are more like modern repos in my estimate). The reason the asang-asang do not attach to the hilt in these cases is either because they didn't know any better when they were producing these or they found it too much trouble or too difficult to do it the right way. The asang-asang is most definitely intended to hold the hilt to the blade.
You have certain have made you case for asang-asang that travel over the ferrule on traditional Moro blades. However, do note that in each of the examples you posted the strap is fairly flush with the ferrule. On your example this is not the case so i would still stand by my suggestion that this was probably done outside the culture by a non-Moro, especially when you consider the out of place leather wrap. I believe your parts are mostly genuine (hilt, pommel band, ferrule, blade, sheath), but that the refurbishing was done somewhere else in a somewhat untraditional manner.