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Originally Posted by blue lander
I think you're right, the handle does look like buffalo horn or something. I'll try something milder to remove the adhesive first. This blade is still pretty stout, the spine is around 8mm thick at the base of the blade and tapers off quickly and rather unevenly. You can see a curve in the edge where the sharp part of the blade begins, as if it had been ground down or sharpened many times. Or maybe it was just made that way.
I've never heard of a pedang, I'll have to look that one up. Do the markings on the spine point to a specific origin or culture, or are they just a decoration?
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Hullo everybody!
The handle is most likely buffalo horn, given the structure of the blade. The picture is not clear enough for me to see. It looks like it could be a 'djengkol saboengkoel'.
The 'striped' structure of the blade is designed for hardness and resilience. This is traditional Soenda. It is known as 'SOELANGKAR'. It is the way the smiths learnt to make goloks of superior quality to those made by the, then, traditional methods (prior to about 12thC).
The taper of the spine allowed for the cutting-edge to be functional all along the blade, which is typical of a golok (a utility chopper primarily designed for hacking).
As to whether yours is a golok (chopper/hacker) or a pedang (sword), one has to look at the blade cutting-edge; if it's sharpened primarily for hacking, then it's a golok; if it's sharpened primarily for slicing, then it's a pedang.
The markings are merely decoration of traditional motifs. E.g., the one with 'sawteeth' in between parallel lines is referred to as a 'paoet njere' motif.
Best,