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Old 5th October 2014, 03:43 AM   #4
Timo Nieminen
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#11: Copper collar. Scabbard is heavy and thick, with MOP. Neutral feel in the hand - a very MOR barong. Except for the copper collar. 6.05mm at the hilt, 4.3mm mid-blade. 656g, 1064g in the chunky scabbard.

#12: Another MOR-feeling barong. The tip is rounded, probably after the original tip broke off. Might have also been deliberately rounded for safety - it isn't sharp at the end. Considering the blade is quite a bit thinner than that of #11, the weights are surprisingly similar. 5.5mm at the hilt, 3.2mm mid-blade. 648g, 891 in scabbard.

#13: Decorated blade. Lightweight. Collar is flared, and appears to be aluminium. There's a crack on the edge of the blade at the middle of the blade. 5.0mm at hilt, 3.15mm mid-blade, 502g.

#14: Modern barong, came from Malaysia (don't know where it was made, probably made 2013). Blade is rather convex, so it's heavy for its size. Scabbard is fairly heavy - the wood is quite dense. Grip swells a lot towards the pommel. 6.0mm at hilt, 5.1mm mid-blade, 720g, 1010g in scabbard.

#15: Modern barong, the Cold Steel Moro Barong. I don't know where these were made. They were sold with a scabbard, but this didn't have one by the time it reached me second-hand. Enormous and chunky. Grip is fatigue-inducingly fat. I'm told this one is somewhat of a mutant, with the blade being thicker than usual; it doesn't thin as much as it should moving from spin to edge (apparently atypical of this Cold Steel model). As a result, it has a quite steep secondary grind at the edge, and doesn't look like it would cut terribly well. If the grip is thinned, and the blade thinned near the edge, and the blade given appropriate taper as it approaches the hilt, it would be improved. 6.8mm at the hilt, 5.5mm mid-blade, so the thickness at the spine is OK, and a chunky chunky 968g (according to the specs for the model, it should be 853g, so it's quite a bit overweight).
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