[blindside]

Originally Posted by xasterix

Sorry to burst the bubble, blindside. The ILT proprietor is a friend of mine...but he has very limited traditional blade knowledge. The blade that you posted actually isn't endemic to the Ilocanos...it has a backstory.

Several years back, the governor of Ilocos saw the Ars Cives Macau Exhibition, wherein several PH swords were exhibited and erroneously labeled as Ilocos- when actually they came from other Luzon areas such as Batangas and Cavite. Inspired by what he thought of as Ilocos swords, that governor had the ILT guys make reproductions of what he thought were Ilocos-provenanced blades.

The rest...is history. I've told ILT the facts, but of course it won't do well with marketing, and they're hesitant to back out of designs which they were told were originally Ilocano.

I'm of half Ilocano lineage myself, but in this matter, I believe things must be straightened out, in deference to the other Luzon pandays.

As for your blade...I don't really know where it is from. A lot of friends have debated over it, and their consensus is that it's not of PH provenance due to certain construction indicators.

Thank you, I really appreciate the information.