[mrwizard]

This is the piece that started my recent ethnographic arms addiction. I was listed as "old bush-knife" at an internet auction-platform with a rather bad picture (mobile-phone) and a description text that it was made shortly before or during WW2. I had seen pictures of keris before and a quick internet search revealed that this one might be of the moro kind. So, as the seller lived nearby (less than 5 miles) i thought "what the heck" and bid on it. Turned out i was the only one...
When i picked it up the seller, he is of Moro descent btw, told me that it belonged to his great-grandfather who used it during WW2. He was actually quite surprised that i identified the item as being moro.

But back to the sword:
It is 72 cm long, five luk, has no separate ganja and the blade seems to be pattern welded -- from what i learned from this forum quite typical for that time. The sword shows quite a lot of wear, there is some pitting from rust and there are several dents. Some of them have been wedged out so that it looks almost like the blade has an additional luk. This is certainly a user and not a status piece.

The scabbard is of wood covered with fine rattan and decorated with painted white metal plates (one seems to be missing). There is also a cloth wrapping that looks to be original.

Scabbard and hilt are covered with a clear lacquer. I'm sure this is not original and has been added later to preserve the item.

Sadly, the Wrongko is shattered and only held together by a metal wire. This looks to be a field repair.
I'm still unsure if i should restore the wrongko or leave it that way. After all if it is part of the swords history.