Hello Russel, That's a very interesting little gunong you have acquired. After a little cleaning it should really shine up nicely. I will try to answer your question as best as I can. The hilt looks to be made of narra wood to me. As for tightening up the guard, you want to tighten it up right you will have completely remove the hilt from the blade. It has most likely loosened up from the wood shrinking up over the years. Clean out any old adhesive from the tang socket and also any adhesive or rust that might be on the tang itself. Make sure that everything fits back together tightly before using a good adhesive to fix everything back together. I like to use cutlers resin when doing this as it cools and sets quickly which leads to better results than a slower setting adhesive that might let the parts shift while setting up. It is also easier to remove if something does go wrong unlike epoxy and some of the other permanent bonding agents. I think on this a nice polish and etch just might reveal a nice pattern in the blade. As for the age of this piece, because of the shape of the hilt and the robust blade I would hazard a guess that it is from the first quarter of the 20th century with a possibility of being a little older. Others here on the forum will be able to give you a more accurate estimate of the age of this piece than I can. My congratulations to you on adding your first gunong to your collection.
Best,
Robert
P.S. Now that you have bought your first one, you officially have the bug and find that you will be uncontrollably drawn to finding and purchasing more and more of these addictive little items.
