Piso Gading

[Roland_M]

Originally Posted by Battara

What a great piece and great work!

Usually the mounts on these are white metal (nickel and copper) and not silver. Did you test the metal?

Great laminations on the blade.

Silver is a statement from the seller, he is a good friend of mine now. He tested it and it is a silver alloy with an unknown part of silver, probably not very much.

[Battara]

This is great news. This might also mean that several Batak pieces with "white metal" might actually have real silver in them...........

[VANDOO]

HERE IS ANOTHER EXAMPLE WITH SOLID BRASS HANDLE AND A WOOD SCABBARD MOSTLY COVERED IN BRASS. SUMATRA, BATAK PEOPLE 24.5 INCHES LONG TOTAL. I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED ONE OF THESE WITH THIS FORM OF HANDLE TRADITIONALLY IN IVORY BUT BRASS WILL BE LEGAL AND SAFER AS ALL THE BRASS MONKEYS ARE ALREADY EXTINCT.

[RobertGuy]

Very nice items indeed but I am really posting just to say

Originally Posted by VANDOO

BUT BRASS WILL BE LEGAL AND SAFER AS ALL THE BRASS MONKEYS ARE ALREADY EXTINCT.

Vandoo you have cheered up my morning

[Sajen]

Hi Roland,

it's a great piece, since I've handled it already I can assure that it has museum quality! Thank you for sharing it here again.

Regards,
Detlef

[Roland_M]

Originally Posted by Sajen

Hi Roland,

it's a great piece, since I've handled it already I can assure that it has museum quality! Thank you for sharing it here again.

Regards,
Detlef

Hi Detlef,

my pleasure.
I'm still slightly confused about the massive hilt, it's simply too big even for large hands as mine.
But the very sharp blade got some nicks so it was definitely used. I wonder how to hold this blade in action, is there a special technique?

Roland

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by Roland_M

I wonder how to hold this blade in action, is there a special technique?

Sorry, I really don't know.

[kai]

Hello Roland,

Congrats, a neat piso gading from the Toba Batak - it really is a beauty. Thanks for putting in so much effort and posting the restoration results here!

While Batak blades rarely exhibit showy pamor of decent contrast, the laminations are often nicely visible and very interesting from a blacksmith's perspective!

The scabbard rings may well be silver. The mouth and foot pieces will have been done by the lost wax method - my best bet would be that the utilized alloy is closer to white brass rather than a low silver alloy though.

I'm still slightly confused about the massive hilt, it's simply too big even for large hands as mine.
But the very sharp blade got some nicks so it was definitely used. I wonder how to hold this blade in action, is there a special technique?

These are status swords that most likely saw ceremonial use only. From the looks of it, the blade may well be older than the already old fittings; maybe a user blade which got promoted to ceremonial use at one point?

Regards,
Kai

[Roland_M]

Originally Posted by VANDOO

BUT BRASS WILL BE LEGAL AND SAFER AS ALL THE BRASS MONKEYS ARE ALREADY EXTINCT.

Lol but you forgot the Green Parties all over the world. If they hear " extinct Brass Monkey", they will gasping and try to forbid all antique brass to safe the Brass Monkeys backwards or so, with a maximum of hope and a minimum of understanding.