Talismanic or just randomly placed copper dots

[Bill]

Originally Posted by kai

However, AFAIK there's no verified notion (from within Moro culture as well as other SEA cultures) that the tang is anything special which needs to be replaced...

Regards,
Kai

Hi Kia, wasn't thinking this had to do with the tang at all but the area of the sword, the place, where the Jen stays. I don't know where exactly that is but was speculating the little square. & the only way to replace that, would require replacing the tang.
Don't expect to find hard solid rules. Research on mountain tribes in Luzon claims that rituals varied greatly from one clan to the next in the same village.
I haven't paid much attention to which groups these "tang replacements" come from but it strikes me, they are what Cato called cross overs. I believe that the so called cross overs are from the Cotabato areas, but am far from certain if limited to those area.
I've got 3 or 4 of these, I'll have to check for similarities.