Thanks for all of the information so far....the design in the blade near the spine is indeed chiseled and from the looks of it was very clean and deep originally, making me suspect that it may be much older than I at first thought as it takes a LOT of cleaning to wear away that much steel.
It's amazing how one piece can sometimes re-open old eyes and make one (me, in this case) re-assess an entire class of weapons with much more respect.
Over the years the kukri is one of the few bladed weapons that comes to mind with nearly as much lore and fable surrounding it as the Moro Sanduko Barung.
Mike
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