Show us your Maguindanao panabas

[Battara]

Here is my current padsumbalin panabas with steel bands and okir butt.

[Battara]

And here is my bading panabas with okir edge. Bands in copper with a silver strip around the end.

[Ian]

Originally Posted by Battara

And here is my bading panabas with okir edge. Bands in copper with a silver strip around the end.

Hi Jose,

Nice blade with carving on the end. This is now the third or fourth one of these I have seen, so yours is not alone. Any thoughts about the significance of this style variant?

As an aside, I have a very nice little Vietnamese or Malaysian chopper that is about 16-18 inches long and would pass for a miniature panabas (hilt is not typical thought). It has similar scalloped carvings to the end of its blade.

Ian.

P.S. Found a picture (not very good one) of that chopper.

.

[Battara]

Originally Posted by Ian

Hi Jose,

Nice blade with carving on the end. This is now the third or fourth one of these I have seen, so yours is not alone. Any thoughts about the significance of this style variant?

Ian.

Not as sure but my thoughts are that this belongs not to a datu but to a higher ranking person within a datu's retinue. Thus the reason for the carved end, copper bands, and silver strip on the hilt.

I also wonder if this is a form of fighting panabas for a high ranking warrior under the same datu.

[Battara]

Also Drack2, since the first time you posted your beautiful panabas (which one day you will donate to me, right? ) I found out that the centipede motif is sign of dangerous power and in tattoo form or engraved empowers the person or weapon with it.

[drac2k]

Okay, it's on the bucklist; now I just have to figure out how I'm going to tell my wife that I will be getting a centipede tattoo to go with my panabas.