Those "Negrito bolos" are actually Ilocano knives

[carlos]

Great post !!! Thank you very much, the information is very apreciated .
Thanks again
Carlos

[Sajen]

Hello Ian,
interesting thread. This "Negrito Bolos" seems to be made only for selling to US servicemen and tourists like you said before so the inscription is done maybe to make them more interesting. Just a guess!

Regards,
Detlef

[blue lander]

I have a knife very similar to a few of these. The blade just says "Philipines"

[Ian]

Originally Posted by Sajen

Hello Ian,
interesting thread. This "Negrito Bolos" seems to be made only for selling to US servicemen and tourists like you said before so the inscription is done maybe to make them more interesting. Just a guess!

Regards,
Detlef

Hi Detlef:

Yes, I think the "Negrito bolo" designation is for marketing purposes, targeting a particular audience, but why would the Negritos be considered a positive marketing "brand?" That's the interesting question here.

Ian.

[Ian]

To suggest an answer to the question I posed—What is so special about the Negritos when marketing to US servicemen?—the attached obituary that appeared in the Chicago Tribune on March 8, 1970 offers clues.

This article talks about the death of a Negrito chief who was a WWII war hero, helping the US in its fight against the Japanese occupying forces. It also speaks of special treatment for the Negritos, ordered by General Douglas Macarthur, in recognition of their guerilla services to the US during WWII. I have not been able to find a copy of Macarthur's directive on this subject, but it seems to have been a substantial recognition of the Negritos because there was unhappiness among other Filipino groups about it.

My conclusion is that the designation "Negrito bolo" on these Ilocano knives was meant to capitalize on the esteem in which the Negritos were held during WWII, and the friendship that existed between the US troops on Clark AFB and the local Pinatubo Negrito population, many of whom lived within the boundaries of the base. This would explain why these "Negrito bolos" first appeared right after WWII.

It may also explain why Robert Fox chose the Pinatubo Negritos for his anthropological studies in 1946-1947.

Ian

[F. de Luzon]

Very informative!

[Ian]

Some recently sold Ilocano/Negrito knives.

The three on the left, with steel guards and ferrules, are all of recent manufacture--late 20th C. to the present. The largest one in the middle has a fist pommel, indicating that this style of hilt is still being made.

The two on the right have traditional brass fittings and are post-WWII but older than the others. The one on the farthest right has an atypical stacked hilt and no ferrule--perhaps a modified or custom made piece.

Ian.

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[Ian]

This one is interesting. Dated "1946," it is one of the earliest of this distinct style of knives which likely were produced near the old US Clark AFB and sold extensively to US servicemen.

The pommel on this one appears to show a very early form of the tri-lobed form that is seen on so many of these knives. Unlike later versions, however, the tang emerges not from the center lobe but from the lobe at the back of the hilt. I have never seen this before. If you look at all the other pics in this post of the tri-lobed feature, the hilts have a curved tang that is peined over the end of the middle lobe. The knife shown here also has a particularly deep "pinky notch" that could only be achieved if the tang was straighter than later examples. Perhaps this knife represents a transition from an earlier style which just featured the "pinky notch" and a simpler style of pommel--such examples exist and are also reasonably common.

These Negrito/Ilocano knives are found frequently online, and are still being made. I think one can appreciate how the "Negrito" styles evolved from previous Ilocano knives at the end of WWII, why the "Negrito" inscriptions and other decorations were added, and how features/materials on these distinctive knives have shifted over time.

Ian

Addendum: I have added pics of another similar knife with an older style of hilt, also dated on the blade "1946," to show how the first knife may have evolved from the earlier simple form into the tri-lobed pommel form.

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