Desperately searching Philippines (Visayas) for edged weapons, please help!
 

Friends, I need some help! I'm in the Philippines trying to find places to buy any kind of traditional knife, dagger or sword. They can be new but made in a traditional style (I love buying from traditional artisans at their shops) or antique. This is the first time I've been on site here looking for anything like this, and I'm still pretty new to searching for this kind of stuff anyway, and I'm having real trouble finding places that actually have them. The locals I happen to know don't have a clue about this stuff and are trying to help but have been taking me to see the fake Hollywood, Conan the Barbarian type of stuff. I found a couple low quality kris in an antique shop, but that's the best I've been able to do so far. I'm bouncing around between Negros (Bacolod area) and Panay (Iloilo area) and will leave in about a week. My window of opportunity is fast closing, please help a newbie!

Well, there's Jun Silva in Cebu area... otherwise I'd think you'd be very close to a lot of blade making where you area. Maybe try asking people on the street where to get bolos/itak/sinuwak/pinuti/etc. Step out of the city you're bound to find some guy with a bolo...

:shrug: Hope you get help soon..

I found plenty of guys with them, but not the decorative ceremonial kind. Just the hack n slash kind...

Driftwould, if you are in iloilo, your best bet would be to go to an open market and look for a vendor that sells blades. binangons can be found in these places. if you have time, you can go to the town of Bingawan, in Barotac Viejo, and have a smith make you a personal binangon. or go to Badiangan. that municipality is famous for their Binangons as well. heck, they have a binangon festival...
prolly run you around 10 dollars or so. hope this helps

old visayan swords is much rarer in Philippines than it is over here in the states. with that said, you might wanna try SM mall in iloilo. last time i was there, there was an antique dealer on the lower floor. he might have some old blades...

Thanks for the information, please keep it coming! In general, when traveling, what kinds of places are good to look, and what strategies are useful to adopt in looking for these kinds of things? I often travel in the developing world and like to get things from the source in person, so I need to develop an understanding that can apply in many places. As I said, antiques, or just new things made in traditional styles, both are ok as long as they are quality, traditional and display their culture through artistic expression.

Don't ask for blades, ask for the Panday (smith). you may have to ask a lot.

Thanks. What are the best places to ask? I have a local friend who's helping me to ask around but I'm not sure he knows any more than I do about how to do it. Basically, I'm just at the beginning as far as figuring out how to actually find these things other than eBay and Amazon which I'm not interested in doing. :shrug:

Without any local contacts, you will have a harder time but just keep asking around, anyone you can but make sure you explain you want local made. Taxi drivers, van drivers, FMA schools, street vendors, market vendors.