Well Kai, you have a good question. My thoughts are these:
1. One sees more twist cores in kris, barong, spears, kampilan, etc. the further back in time one goes. In fact, by the time of the early 20th century, twist cores in the Philippines disappear.
2. Early twist cores seem to be of better quality than those by the end of the 19th century.
3. As gun technologies improved and the acquisition of these weapons grew, the quality of bladed weaponry seems to have declined due to declining reliance on bladed weaponry. When the demand drops, so does the supply and the trained smiths (who often go to make other things for a living). Thus even the training for making a twist core properly is lost, especially after the American ban of large bladed weaponry in the Morolands after 1915.
So far these are some of my observations, but I admit I need to see more provenance examples and more research to back these thoughts.
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