A Very Different Philippine Dagger

[Ian]

Originally Posted by Robert

Hello everyone, this is the latest addition to my collection. With the horse hoof pommel I would say that this is from Ilocos Norte. Now on to the odd part of this. The lower concave side of the blade is the sharpened side while the top side is flat from hilt to tip. Then there is the angle of the hilt itself. At first I thought that the tang might have been bent at some point, but now that it has arrived and I have had time to inspect it I found that the back of the blade is cut to intentionally set the hilt at this odd angle. There is some bug damage to the horn hilt and the pommel cap and band are missing, but these can easily be replaced. Has anyone seen anything like this before and can can anyone give me an idea of what the purpose of such a blade configuration would be ???

Best,
Robert

Hi Robert:

This is a very unusual blade form for a Filipino knife. I suspect it comes from elsewhere and was rehilted in the Philippines, or perhaps it is a copy of a knife from elsewhere. I'm not familiar with any similar indigenous knife from Luzon. The horse hoof hilt is not especially helpful in defining a region for its origin as one can readily find this style of hilt on working knives throughout Luzon, and indeed they are now widespread throughout the islands. Whether that style started in the Ilocos Region, and spread elsewhere, is unclear.

The shape of the blade reminds me of some of the northern Indian, (Indo-Persian) armor-piercing variety designed to pierce chain mail. The reverse sharpened edge might indicate a backwards hilt mounting, and could be the most logical explanation, but there are occasional knives in the SE Asian region that have this configuration and do not appear to be mistakes. I have one knife from Vietnam (Hmong) that has this arrangement and the handle is made from the ulna bone of a monkey. I have another from Indonesia (probably Sumatran)--I will look up the name for it.

As to what it was used for, that's not obvious. I don't think it is a tool. If this is correctly mounted, then it is designed for stabbing and slashing upwards--basically a gutting knife. Nasty, nasty.

Correction--I now see the most recent post indicating that the back edge is not sharpened. In which case, the hilt is most likely correctly mounted and it's just a wicked stabbing blade...

Ian.