Balato

[Mytribalworld]

Originally Posted by henri

Last one brought into my luggages last week .

Not cleaned yet but probably recent .Difficult to estimate age .... Ball is a new one made in wood but interesting hilt.
Any comments always welcomed !

Henri

Hi Henry,

Your balato looks to me as a post WW2 piece but seems to be good carved with some style variations typical for that time.
I think its a piece from the 70's or so with less patina and what they sadly did was adding a black ugly patina to make it look older ( so more expensive)
I think they did that by painting and burning( the wet paint), it looks a little crusty.

however I mostly don't advice to clean old weaponery I think the piece will look much better if you clean the hilt very carefully with steelwool.

regards Arjan