Visayan "pinuti"

[RhysMichael]

Ian
In Mark V. Wiley's book "Filipino Martial Culture " He talks about a pinute as a type of bolo. He states that the term is derived from "puti" which means white , after the white ray of light that forms along the edge of a properly hardened and sharpened blade. So that re-enforces Spungers comment.
John

[Conogre]

I recently saw a statement saying that in some Philippine tribes, a blade must be cleaned to "whiteness" to be a true battle weapon, which would support what RhysMichael and Spunjer are saying, but also casts some doubt as to whether it's a specific style, or refers to any knife/sword, possibly indicating that a ritual cleansing is all that's required to turn a bladed piece from a tool to a weapon.
Often it appears the task ends up being to gather bits of information from several half truths, hopefully ending up with a/the correct whole at the end.
Mike

[Ian]

Spunjer, John, Mike -- thank you for your collective observations. I need to do some more reading -- thanks for the reference, John.

Ian.

[Federico]

Ive heard the word pinuti to describe what we generally call bonifacio style bolo, though in this case the polish received after forging is minimal (often alot of scale still on the blade), so the only time white metal shows is when the blade is sharpened correctly. My father used to say when his grandfather would play arnis with his bolo, he would always sharpen it. Just a random anecdote.

[Conogre]

"Playing" arnis with freshly sharpened weapons is a pretty good indicator of the skill level of the practitioner as well, so apparently you have a family history to be proud of.
I remember when a member of my own family's ardor for geneology cooled somewhat when she discovered an ancestor that was hanged as a horse thief!
Mike

[Ian]

Further pursuing narrow-bladed Visayan weapons that may be called pinuti, here is another one that I picked up a while ago. It is probably WWII vintage, judging from the old khaki-colored metal strips around the scabbard and hilt. These could be off old WWII ammo containers, which I have seen before on WWII era Philippine knives.

The hilt is one of those abbreviated kakatuas which are often found on the heavy, blunt-ended choppers from Panay, Negros -- binangon. The blade is basically a very skinny version of a tenegre. The edge is hardened, as seen in the pictures.

This sword is village quality in its construction, but does illustrate the pinuti theme.

[tom hyle]

Interesting that the temper line does not seem to curve back to go all the way to the tip(?) I have a parang nabur with a similar feature, which is common on kukuri.

[Federico]

Originally Posted by Ian

Further pursuing narrow-bladed Visayan weapons that may be called pinuti, here is another one that I picked up a while ago. It is probably WWII vintage, judging from the old khaki-colored metal strips around the scabbard and hilt. These could be off old WWII ammo containers, which I have seen before on WWII era Philippine knives.

The hilt is one of those abbreviated kakatuas which are often found on the heavy, blunt-ended choppers from Panay, Negros -- binangon. The blade is basically a very skinny version of a tenegre. The edge is hardened, as seen in the pictures.

This sword is village quality in its construction, but does illustrate the pinuti theme.

I have a very similar blade that I bought from a vets son along with a diety hlted binangon. The father was stationed near Letye, but then we normally dont associate diety pieces with the area. Both bolo seemed of similar construction and age, and due to the presence of a circular wood guard on the diety piece, Zel suggested a possible much older date than WWII. Are the fittings brazed or solid? I know on mine, they feature old style brazing, something that dissappears in many bolo circa WWII.