Kris in Hawaii

[Ian]

Hello littletex:

Welcome to the Forum.

I think both the knives you show in #25 and the one in #49 are from the Philippines, more specifically from the main island of Luzon. Although you show two wavy-bladed daggers, they are not truly kris but were daggers made either by Ilocanos in northern Luzon or possibly by Moros in the Sulu Archipelago where they would be called gunong. I think the Moro attribution is less likely. Also, the other knife you show in #25, with a clipped blade, is certainly from Luzon (central or northern Luzon in style). These all look as though they were made in the late 19th or early 20th C. They would have been inexpensive weapons owned by peasants, but quite capable of causing a nasty wound.

Given that Hawaii and the Philippines came under direct U.S. rule at much the same time at the end of the 19th C., it is perhaps not surprising that Filipinos ended up in Hawaii shortly thereafter. There is a sizeable population of Filipinos there today, notably Ilocanos from the northernmost areas of Luzon.

My best suggestion for your examples is that these are all Ilocano knives that accompanied Filipino workers/immigrants to the Hawaii islands in the early 20th C.

Ian