Philippines knife, maybe visayas?
 

This item just finished in Ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWNX:IT,
the handle is damaged but looks good and I think is a good price too.
I wish you enjoy it.
best regardsa
carlos

More pictures...

Wow! Nice! And at a great price. Wish I saw it. :p
Definitely Visayas. It is etched Iloilo. Which is in Panay, which is in the Visayas region. :)
Wonder what the blade profile looks like. :shrug:

carlos, nice find! when will my turn come? ;)

cabatuan is a town in panay island which is known for good smiths. i saw one antique sword in panay made by a cabatuan smith that used albino carabao horn for hilt. the guard of your sword looks like it's made of albino carabao horn as well.

the carving of the figural monster looks not the usual though. but that makes that piece unique in its own way. congrats!

The Iloilo Museum has identified 5 hilt variants of the Panay sword: 1) the classic short nose tenegre (found all over lowland Panay); 2) the long-nosed sanduko of the Panay Bukidnons/Mundo; 3) the Open Mouth/crocodile Mouth pommel (made until now in Antique, particularly the town of Adiong), which some people say is Negros (it is not); 4) the human monster face with large eyes and menacing teeth ,sometimes made of bone (made in the vicinity of Cabatuan, Iloilo; and : 5) the plain rounded/pistol grip found in binangons from Iloilo Province (older ones made of carabao horn).

1) has a sub-variant that looks like it has two horns in addition to the short nose.

You say these things like they are drawbacks; these plusses. Standardized art can be beautiful, but unique and dare we consider inspired art is the bees knees.

thanks for the comments. we are actually saying the same thing :)

just can't help but notice that there seems to be certain similarities between nias (indonesia) hilts, and visayan hilts (like in this case) ...