BARUNG BATTLE DAMAGED
 

Hello friends,

Sharing with you a battle-damaged barung that ultimately bacame a war trophy (from a siege- which I cannot disclose in Mindanao).

Short histoty: Originally from a Moro warrior who was eventually killed (prior to the mindanao skirmish). Taken by a soldier as a war booty and used it as his personal blade. A bullet struck this barung, hence, the damage.

A barung with a 15.5" blade/ over-all length of 20.5". Hilt: carabao horn with 'ivory' beak design in its pommel.

A part of me tells me to have the barung restored (and lose all the traits it had in that Mindanao siege) and another part of me wants to leave it as is- with the history/story intact.

what do you think?

Kind regards

Yves

Depends on your intended purpose. If you intend to display it and highlight the provenance, best to leave it as is.

Besides, restoring this would greatly reduce the blade mass due to re-profiling.

I agree with this 100%

Normally I'm for restoration, but in this case, I think this is an exception. Keep it as is for the history and provenance. Besides, it is beyond good reasonable restoration.

barung battle damaged
 

Hi all,

Thank u all.

I'd keep it that way. I've come to realize that the history/provenance of this blade is much more important as is.

Kindest regards,

Yves

you cant really reprofile these asian weapons as for the most part unlike arms from europe and the caucasus they are very rarely fully quenched and tempered even if they are made form imported bards of steel,, they are mostly just edge quenched or partially quenched giving only a small hardened zone . reprofiling it you may end up with an edge as soft as iron

Another good point (like the one on top of my head :D).

0.45 was a powerful bugger.

Hello Ariel,

During the early years of the US involvement, the .45 was not standard issue and would need to have been private purchase.

Damage more likely to be from a rifle. Even more so since this blade got hit when still sheathed...

Regards,
Kai

Do we know when was this barung taken as a trophy? Smith-Wesson 0.45 was issued in 1911, but private purchase was sufficiently popular well before that.

No matter what, even if we are talking about the earliest 3-4 years of shooting war, using standard government issue 0.45-70 Gov’t Springfield "Trapdoor" rifle, this damaged barung is interesting not as a weapon per se, but as a part of history.

Don't fix it.

To fix this would be a travesty.

It would be like re casting the liberty bell because it has a crack

If only it could talk!

Regards

Ken