Thank you, Gav. that's a beautiful kampilan! ever since you have posted that, I've been dreaming about owning a similar type, with bells and double handguards. you are indeed lucky to acquire that!
would you care to post your ivory kampilan, Batara? It would indeed be nice to have some sort of database for the holy grail.
Okay, we are starting to narrow it down here.
so for a kampilan, an ivory and gold handle (similar to the one on Cato's book, I believe it's the one that's in the Philippine Museum) or similar would be THE holy grail.
For kriss: a large cockatoo ivory pommel with gold handle, and twistcore. i concur with that! I wonder if our fellow forumite Bill M. would have an example of that type that he can post (hint, hint). there is a fine example on Cato's book as well.
For the barong:Bill M's barong would certainly qualify as the holy grail in the barong world! I have not seen a lot of those myself. Again, going back to Cato's book, there is a barong that has a similar type of handle materials. Hope whoever owns it at the moment would post a clearer picture, or pictures. here's a link to his wonderful gold and ivory barong:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ghlight=barong