[DaveA]

Hello,

I recently acquired a sword whose blade is consistent with a sikin identification. However, the hilt does not match the strong implication in VZ's book that a sikin hilt is invariably forked. Nor does this hilt match what I know of the "horse-hoof" type hilts that are sometimes found on other swords from Sumatra, but I readily admit my limited expertise on that subject and this leads me to the query in this post.

See photo attached. The hilt is 4 1/2 inches long and about 1 1/2 inches high with an oval cross section, slightly flattened on the sides and increasing in size towards the down turned pommel as you can see in the photo. The pommel itself is nearly flat, with no decoration.

Any ideas what kind of hilt this is? Is it reasonable to think it could be found on a sikin?

I promise to post pictures of the whole sword once I remove a bit more rust and get it cleaned up.

Best Regards,

Dave A.