Sikin with fine laminated blade and gold inlay
 

My second Sikin is one of the many variations of the Klewang, the Indonesian machete like sword.

This one is also probably Acheen from Sumatra, mid to Late 19th C. 27" overall -- 21" blade with a 14" fuller just below the spine. Polygonal steel bolster with gold inlay.

Hilt is carved horn. I wonder if it is a replacement as it does not have the fine work the rest of the sword has? But it looks very functional and would not slip in the hand.

Original wood scabbard with fine engraved decorations. I love these talismanics.

Nice one Bill.

The hilt is not a replacement but original to the Sikin.

Henk,

You know more about these than me. I was going on the difference in quality between the blade, scabbard and hilt. My other sikin with the horn handle and a less fine blade has a much more elaborately carved hilt.

The one here seems to be a fine ensemble with a utility hilt. Any ideas why they would do this when they made this sikin?

Dear Bill,

Check the various other threads on sikin / sikim.

Gold inlays are often combined with this type of hulu/hilt and a wooden scabbard. nothing unusual.

I like a lot the scabbard: i think this scabbard could be not from Aceh but, from the pictures, from a tribal area (batak? ...toraja??)

Uhm... Toraja is Celebes/Sulawesi.

This is a typical Atjeh scabbard. floralmotifs due to Islam and still signs of their animistic background.

Asomotif gave the answer. It is the most common hilt for a Sikim.

Your other Sikim with that faboulous hilt is something as Asomotif said in his comment something I haven't seen before either. In my opinion such a hilt is unusual and an exception.

some variations of hilt types with the 'simple' wooden scabbard.

Very nice sikin aceh.. Especially when the hilt is of rhino horn, most I found have cracks or damage.

Aceh !!:o :o :o

Great textbook example, Bill!


Hello Newsteel,

Yes, the cracks are almost a given with antique horn hilts. I'm always extremely cautious if horn hilts don't show any cracks...

I haven't seen a peudeueng panjang hilt of rhino horn though (verified by examining the surface structure under magnification rather going by "fibrous" appearance which can also be seen with weathered horn from cattle like waterbuffalo!).

Regards,
Kai

Hello Willem,

I believe this must be due to Acehnese adat restrictions: It's easy to spot the status swords but one would assume that gold inlaid blades with gold crowns and elaborately carved hulu pasangan and scabbards with ivory crosspieces did represent the top of the top. Since we never see anything like this, I'd guess that there are different categories of decorations which are incompatible due to social conventions; there may be royal vs. local ruler/judges pieces, ceremonial/kraton vs. nobility fighting pieces, etc. Looks like we need to collect more data to solve this puzzle!

Regards,
Kai

Dear Kai,

Exactly what I mean. there are a lot of variations, but there is some pattern that does not follow our greedy logic of / More money / more gold / more ivory etc...
Sounds as a logical explanation that there where rules/adat about decorations.
I wonder if such detailled differences are descibed somewhere ?

Best regards,
Willem