Moro Kampilan. Opinion needed

[Conogre]

That's a beautiful old sword, congratulations!
Instead of rusting and prodoucing a reddish iron oxide, silver usually just gets very "black" right from the beginning.....on Muslim weaponry, silver was often a sign of wealth,high rank or personal importance, being a "clean" holy metal, where gold was often considered sinful.
Those holes along the bottom of the silver on the pommel would have held tufts of hair, usually from a horse but occasionally of human origin.
The kampilans are one of the weapons found both in the Philippines and in Indonesia, most famous to the general public for its use by the "Sea Dayaks" or pirates.
Mike

[tom hyle]

Originally Posted by Conogre

.....on Muslim weaponry, silver was often a sign of wealth,high rank or personal importance, being a "clean" holy metal, where gold was often considered sinful.

Mike

I didn't know that; thanks. In truth I very little care whether metal is silver or how pure; I'm unfascinated by silver, but AFAIK there are some sort of tests that jewellers know; maybe someone can tell you. Black oxide is a pretty decent cue though. Nickel alloys rust (I like to use that word for all metals; I don't know why) grey or green (depending how much copper they contain), and aluminum, while having a slightly different sheen, also rusts dull light grey.

[ariel]

The pic of the tip looks as if a motorized implement had been used for cleaning.
Horror, horror.....

[Conogre]

Since you're fairly new to collecting, Ariel's comment was also possibly in way of a subtle warning...many beautiful antiques are all but destroyed by using a Dremmel, sander or such to remove rust, which can mar a blade almost beyond repair.
Many use a liberal application and soaking with WD40 or a similar good rust inhibitor, followed by removal with a cloth or other non-abrasive material until you have considerable experience.
Mike

[Bill]

Nice old Kampilan, also nice restoration project. The white metal seems quite odd, your pics look like mine so its hard to see detail. While it has "Moro" design on the white metal, it doesn't look typical. It also seems to be cut from thin sheet metal but it is hard to tell. Is it holding the hilt together or covering up damage? Plenty of advise in the old forums on restoration, Good luck with a nice old sword.

[philkid]

What do you think the age is on this item? Thanks for the info about restoration although I did not restore it. Left it as it is. The metal doesn't hold the hilt together and I don't see it covering up any damage. What do you think the metal was for? Is it for decoration? Thanks

[philkid]

By the way, can someone give me the basics on what to use on cleaning blades? Thanks.

[Conogre]

Again, silver was often used as a display of wealth, rank or status on many swords, particularly as it's regarded as a "clean" metal, spiritually, in the Muslim faith.
Many warriors added to their swords as their station in life improved, so it's not unusual to see silver newer than the rest of a sword, and keep in mind that swords were also often passed down from generation to generation as well as being highly regarded battle trophies.
I would suspect that more than one klewang was retired back to field chores when its owner was fortunate enough to come out the victor in a battle or war, aquiring a weapon that would otherwise be far beyond his means.
As to age, at least as early as the late 19th century and possibly as new as the early to mid 20th century, but would hesitate to state anything more than that, other than it's a very nice weapon.
Mike

[Ian]

Congrats on finding a nice old example of a kampilan, probably 19th C., that has some features which make me think it is probably Maranao.

The Maranao features are the style of the hilt with a prominent round disk at the junction of the two "jaws," as well as the use of a silver band at the end of the grip decorated with ")" marks which are still seen today on pieces coming from the Lake Lanao region. Similar silver bands can be seen on some Maranao kris.

I do think this is silver from the appearance in the pictures. Pure silver was used on many early Moro weapons, as well as coin silver from melting down Spanish and later American silver coins. Silver (or any other precious metal) decoration is uncommon on kampilan, and perhaps indicates ownership by someone of higher rank, as Mike has indicated. It is unusual to see such ornamentation on kampilan, perhaps because these were exclusively weapons and were not worn for display (although some dignitaries did have large, unusual examples carried by attendants as a symbol of rank or power).

It is likely that the grip on this one was wrapped with rattan strips or cord during its earlier life, and these have been lost with time.

There are many posts about kampilan on this web site, and I would encourage you to use the search function for "kampilan" to learn more about them.

Ian.