Maluku parang?
 

My latest acquisition arrived this morning. It was said to be a parang from Maluku. The blade (which could do with a clean) is 39 cm long. The handle is wood, with a small coral? inlay. the scabbard is hardwood (teak?) and is open along the length of the blade. Any comments/observations would be much appreciated.

Hello Dave,

Nice and interesting sword! And yes, I also would have guessed that it comes somewhere from the Moluccan Archipelago, my personal guess would be that it comes from the Northern part.
Will show some of my one examples for comparison soon.

Regards,
Detlef

Hi Detlef,

Thanks for your comments. I found this very interesting old thread showing some of your parangs from Halmahera:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=8252

Would it be correct to call my parang a semarang?

Hi Dave,

You found the swords I want to show! ;) And yes, I think that you can call your sword semarang. The handle shape and the in up open scabbard let me think like this.

Regards,
Detlef