A pair of interesting Philippine Edged Weapons
 

For your viewing.

The Visayan scabbard does not look correct for the top bolo. For the knife, is the handle peened?

Yes both handles are peened.They have matching collection numbers on the scabbards and the weapons, but we all know how museums are.I agree, that the longer sword was either cut down or it is a mismatched sheath..

Hello David, I agree with Jeff, the top bolo looks very Luzon to my eyes while the scabbard looks Visayan and the scabbard looks like a mismatch.
The Visayan knife looks very nice! :cool:

I agree with both of you.The knife is my favorite as well;it is heavy and by its configuration, I think its main purpose was for fighting.

Jep, it's also my favorite! :cool:;)

Yes, indeed, it caught my eye as well. The triangular blade cross-section is interesting.

The triangular cross section is only on one side;the blade measures 9.75" long x 1&5/8" at its widest.

Hi Drac,

Two nice Luzon knives with some age I believe.

The smaller one with the triangular blade plus D-guard with down-turned quillion has Spanish colonial features. I think this one was locally made in Luzon (the full tang hilt and Spanish colonial features suggest Luzon rather than Visayas) and perhaps from the Batangas/Lake Taal area to the south of Manila. The lines and cross-hatching are features I've seen on other Batangas/L-T knives. This one could be late 19th C in manufacture.

The longer one has not been cut down in my opinion. The shape of this blade is commonly found in Northern Luzon (Ilokos) as well as Central Luzon (Pampanga) and other Tagalog areas. The Visayan scabbard appears misplaced for this knife. Hard to judge the age of this one. Perhaps WWII-era or a little earlier.

Regards, Ian.

Hi Ian,
I would disagree, I think that this dagger is pure Visayan. Maybe Xas will join in and can tell us more about this dagger. ;)

Agree with you!

Regards,
Detlef

Hi Detlef,

What puts me off a Visayan origin for the smaller knife is the full length tang and the form of the D-guard. Perhaps something from Cebu, but I think that is less likely than Luzon.

Regards, Ian.

Hi Ian,

Of course you could be correct, the complete handle and the full tang construction looks very Luzon to my eyes as well. It could be a Luzon dagger sheathed in a Visayan scabbard. But the scabbard seems to be made for this blade. When I saw this dagger I remembered directly an old thread where Zel has shown some very nice Visayan blades, the engraving at the ricasso area and the blade cross section are very similar, see the pics. But like always I could very well be wrong. :confused:

Regards,
Detlef

The bottom dagger does have similar engraving at the ricasso as well as that triangular shaped blade.

Hi David,

What I stated! ;) I directly remembered this old thread when I saw your dagger the first time. I think that the blade has clearly Visayan features.

Regards,
Detlef

Right. It was so well said by you, that I had to state it again. Sometimes my brain has a delayed reaction, lol.

Hi Detlef,

Yes, lines on the blade adjacent to the hilt are certainly seen on some Visayan knives and swords, including those with Panay hilts. And yes, an occasional Spanish Colonial blade of triangular cross-section can be found with a Visayan hilt. However, the substantial majority of these triangular cross-section knives and swords are mounted with full-length tang, Luzon (Tagalog or Ilokano) hilts, as the present example illustrates.

Also, in passing, the asymmetrical, slightly curved blade on drac's smaller knife is very unusual. More typically, Spanish Colonial knives of triangular cross-section are straight and symmetrical with a straight ridge running down the middle of the obverse side of the blade. Sometimes, such a blade flares slightly in width just below the ricasso and then tapers with straight edges to an acute point (features seen in the comparison blade in your most recent post). Spanish Colonial swords with a triangular cross-section are more likely, at least in my experience, to have curved blades rather than straight, symmetrical ones.

Drac's smaller knife is of better quality and interest than the larger one IMHO — better made and more uncommon.