[Battara]

Greetings folks,

Been a while since I posted something new. I got this off of eBay a while back, so it took a while to find time to restore this. The original tang was cut and the silver cap was missing on the pommel, as well as the middle silver band on the scabbard and the bottom silver chase. All of these I restored.

What is interesting is the pommel in the shape of a coiled snake (including silver wire and silver eyes). I have another dagger that also has a coiled snake on it. The symbolism? - not sure. The only thing I found was an old Batangas Tagalog myth of the dahong palay, which is an extremely poisonous green snake. Could this have been used as a talisman by Batangas owners during the Philippine-American War? This might go with the sinuous blade........

Enjoy the pictures.