Contemporary bangkung? knife/ID & origin help
 

Good evening all,

This came in the mail today. Not old or rare, but it’s a nice utilitarian piece. Would this be considered a bangkung? I’m hoping a forum member knows what region it may be from. I think the maker’s mark is a simple “E”.

Photos are pre-cleaning.

Thanks!

Hi WW,

Yes, fairly recent work. If you have the item already, is the edge chisel-ground or a V-grind? It looks chisel-ground to me, but hard to tell from the picture. If it is chisel-ground, then that likely reflects some Visayan influence.

The lightly carved okir on the scabbard looks vaguely Maranao to me, but perhaps another forumite can be more specific. The scabbard seems to have been nailed together along the edges with small brads. Very unusual for Moro work.

The blade shape has a convexly curved edge, quite marked in the distal one-third, which is unusual for a bangkung in my experience. The ones I've seen and handled had a straighter edge in that area.

The multifaceted hilt and small circular ferrule look more Tagalog or Visayan than Moro to me.

If you look at examples in the Show us your Bangkung thread here it appears that some of the blade forms are similar to a ginunting, which is a Tagalog sword that has been popular with recent Filipino martial arts practitioners and adopted by some of the Filipino military for a general purpose machete (but nevertheless remains a formidable fighting blade also). The modern ginunting versions usually have a concave blade edge and a partially sharpened back edge.

Overall, I don't think this is a bangkung, and I don't think it is necessarily Moro work. The blade shape is similar to an Antipolo knife I had, and there may well be other examples from elsewhere in the Philippines.

What needs cleaning? :confused:
Is there rust or something on the blade?

Thank you! Yes, the blade is chisel ground.

No, it’s fairly clean. Unfortunately there’s some old wood glue or cement on the edge. Hopefully it’ll come off easily.

Definitely not a bangkung, nor Moro (as already suggested by others).

These modern pieces tend to be much tougher to place since they don't strictly follow traditions anymore. I wonder if the bent foot of the scabbard hints at the Panay highlands though?

Regards,
Kai

Thus knife has been offered for sale online today. This thread is closed until that item sells.