My first kris :)

[kai]

Hello Bill,

The blade is nicely done.

Note that there's still a little bit of silver inlay attached close to the lower asang-asang. I'm not holding my breath but you may want to try etching the blade.

It's a copy of what Cato refers to a "18C".

I also think that this is a revival piece - possibly dating from after the Span.-Am. war and before 1930. Certainly not what Cato refers to as 18th c. (the curves are not old style, too) and more likely to be early 20th c.

I'm not sure where it was made The file work in the center looks like Maguindanao or Maranao but elephant's head looks more Sulu.

The pics are not taken from directly above - I believe the blade is Maguindanao indeed.

The blade is older then the hilt. You can see where the old baca-baca (stirrup) once was.

Yes, IMHO they recycled an older pommel and added the flashy grip section (done in Marawi?). Also the asang-asang are not attached correctly.

If this would be my piece, I'd be tempted to tear the hilt apart, to attach the asang-asang correctly, to add a plain silver ferrule, and to try my hands at a decent grip wrapping.

Your ivory pommel is different & perhaps made earlier then the 60's, hard to say.

They are often artificially aged. However, the carving seems to be good quality on this one; I wouldn't be surprised if it had the same age as the blade.

For the most part, I think the coins in the scabbard are also most common in 1960's work & latter. The rattan looks older then that but I've also seen quite a few scabbards made in the 60's that are similar.

Coming out of the Philippines, the scabbard can't be too old for such a piece: Post-WW2 but there's always the chance that it may have been done "yesterday"...

BTW, some of the blades coming out of the Philippines nowadays show a surface hinting at laminations but are apparently monosteel. They have separate gangya but I suspect that they may be newly done and etched. It was already known that blades with separate gangya continue to be produced for local use; the blades mentioned seem to be a response to the foreign collectors' market though.

Regards,
Kai