Now I have a Tajong!!

[kai]

Hello Detlef,

I hope the experts will join in for dating. I see some genuine wear and can relate to the suggested age - have been wrong before though...

The sheat is heavy patinated and have only a very small old chip at one of the beaks.

The scabbard is the real prize here, IMHO. Very nice old piece - a bit of cleaning and some wax will probably do. I'd take it for the price any day...

From the pics, I'm not convinced that the scabbard was made for the blade though - fit seems ok but has some gaps. A gentle pineapple juice cleaning will help stopping active rust (the tip of the blade is corroded enough that this won't make it look worse); I don't think it's worth to repolish the blade since the tip area can't be restored to a traditional shape. I'd keep it as an ol' piece of history. BTW, the wire is only there to hold the hulu, isn't it? (If so, I'd remove it...)

I'm not sure wether redoing the glued hilt would be a good idea - may be less prone to additional cracking if you just cover the glue with some hard wax of a corresponding color. Regluing the beak may be more feasible though. However, since the wood doesn't correspond to the hulu, a possible strategy would be covering it with gold foil? (Suasa would be traditional but expensive.)

All in all, I believe this old piece will look nice when displayed sheathed with an added pendokok.

Regards,
Kai