That's a beautiful old sword, congratulations!
Instead of rusting and prodoucing a reddish iron oxide, silver usually just gets very "black" right from the beginning.....on Muslim weaponry, silver was often a sign of wealth,high rank or personal importance, being a "clean" holy metal, where gold was often considered sinful.
Those holes along the bottom of the silver on the pommel would have held tufts of hair, usually from a horse but occasionally of human origin.
The kampilans are one of the weapons found both in the Philippines and in Indonesia, most famous to the general public for its use by the "Sea Dayaks" or pirates.
Mike
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