Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

tom hyle · 15th May 2005, 08:30 PM

I've heard that, too, about the gunong being for concealment, much as it is said of aikuchi, sgian dhu, and many other smallish guardless or minimally guarded daggers. There's no doubt it can be so worn, but whether that was the usual thing is in the realm of folklore AFAIK, at the moment (not that there's anything wrong with that), and whether the wearers generally considered it concealed or merely tucked away, as for us with pocket knives, is also probably open to interpretation. Most of the sword-sized gunongs I've seen were Lumad, and the Moro ones probably not very old. My Visayan one, on the other hand, has about a 7 or 8 inch blade, and seems c. 19 or very early 20th (spiral horn handle with a supesimplified pommel like one we've seen on a varient bathead sword, horn guard, angle of tang in handle offset to centralise cutting angle of forward edge (as on many old talibons)), but the weird and Spainish/Luzon feature on it is a full length tang. Some Moro ones are tiny, and may even be miniatures (2" overall length....). I think that miniature knives might be a SE Asian artform, BTW, and not neccessarily anything to do with foreigners originally; I see a lot of them, and some seem quite old. Some are jewelry, while others are just tiny.

15th May 2005, 08:30 PM	#4
tom hyle Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Houston, TX, USA Posts: 1,254	I've heard that, too, about the gunong being for concealment, much as it is said of aikuchi, sgian dhu, and many other smallish guardless or minimally guarded daggers. There's no doubt it can be so worn, but whether that was the usual thing is in the realm of folklore AFAIK, at the moment (not that there's anything wrong with that), and whether the wearers generally considered it concealed or merely tucked away, as for us with pocket knives, is also probably open to interpretation. Most of the sword-sized gunongs I've seen were Lumad, and the Moro ones probably not very old. My Visayan one, on the other hand, has about a 7 or 8 inch blade, and seems c. 19 or very early 20th (spiral horn handle with a supesimplified pommel like one we've seen on a varient bathead sword, horn guard, angle of tang in handle offset to centralise cutting angle of forward edge (as on many old talibons)), but the weird and Spainish/Luzon feature on it is a full length tang. Some Moro ones are tiny, and may even be miniatures (2" overall length....). I think that miniature knives might be a SE Asian artform, BTW, and not neccessarily anything to do with foreigners originally; I see a lot of them, and some seem quite old. Some are jewelry, while others are just tiny.