Parang Kerekoepang From Banjarmasin, Borneo
Here is a parang kerekoepang from Banjarmasin, Borneo recently purchased from Ebay, and now restored to more of what it would have originally looked like. It has some very unique features, even strange to me. Note one side of the blade has a shallow fuller and turns inward sharply at the blade's edge. The opposite side of the blade of the blade is practically FLAT, with no fuller and the edge turning just slightly inward.
The blade is quite heavy and thick. It is hard for me to believe that the all wood hilt of this sword could have handled such a blade for long, indeed, you can already see an old stress crack. It seems to me that it would not take much of a blow, even for this slasher, to break the heavy blade from the hilt. Note there is no bolster, rattan or wire wrap, or anything else to strengthen the hilt.
It's a lovely sword to look at, quite elegant, but I wonder about its "engineering".
Restoration only involved cleaning the blade a little and replacing some of the many cord bindings.
Dimensions:
24in. overall length
18in. blade length
1.5in. widest point of the blade
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