by the kai I believe I replied you email, though i am very late
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Originally Posted by kai
There are clear indications that traditional Moro bladesmithing has gone through a severe bottleneck during the 20th century and some may even argue that it has gone extinct (obviously, much of the knowledge got lost).
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Bottleneck due to the common reasons of lesser demand for traditional blades or to do with wars and such? I know many traditional knife-makers around the world have been supplanted by the knife/machete-factory and the firearm... In Taiwan, the majority of the Aboriginal knife-makers are from Copper-gate village, and have all learnt it from one of the few surviving smiths... the others probably did not pass the art on as they felt it was useless to their people. Nowadays the headhunting knives find a niche as a cultural artifact and mountain survival machete. Would that be what is happening in Sulu and Mindanao?
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Originally Posted by kai
However, the current panday in Mindanao are getting better (e. g. a separate gangya has been the rule for decent new examples for quite some years) and it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish antique kris from some newly produced and artificially patinated ones. Aesthetically, the craftmanship still can't compare with good traditional examples from the early 20th century and I also can't vouch for their balance; I have yet to see a traditionally laminated new piece. However, I'm sure that these blades would do their job and wouldn't want to be of the receiving end of any of the newly produced pieces, too.
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That is good news. I occasionally see modern-made Moro weapons from the Philippines on sale, but since I cannot hold and test the blade, its hard to tell if they are good blades, or just attractive fittings with a metal piece... Some are obviously Luzon-made like you said... some are even from Pakistan (which in conjunction with India and China, seems to be a big manufacturing place for traditional blades).
I many cases I actually prefer a good modern-made blade...
but good modern-made barongs, made by Moros, seem harder to find than antiques...
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Originally Posted by migueldiaz
I'm not sure also whether in the recent past (10 to 20 years ago), laminated blades are still being made by Moro bladesmiths.
It appears though that earlier (30 or so years ago), the blades are still laminated. The pic below is from a 1970s Filipino book, on an article on Filipino bladesmithing.
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Nice picture... and fascinating... Mr. Quirino's
Crossing the Sulu Seas does show laminated blades and a kris being forged- that was in 1988 or a little later. As this is 2009, that was only 21 years ago, so at least a few folks in Sulu most still know the art.... but a lot can happen in 20 years.