Another Unique Piso Podang or Chenangkas

[CharlesS]

This blade caught my eye at the Baltimore show in March 2013. The immediate appeal was the lovely and elegant silver hilt in the piso podang style. Note the unusually long, elegant langets.

Above and beyond the hilt the blade was a real eye catcher as well. It has a long straight(technically making it a chenangkas, rather than a piso podang) and very thin pamor steel blade, making it almost certainly a ceremonial or status piece.

More importantly, note the triple fullers on both sides of the blade...hardly something we would expect to see on an Indonesian blade of pamor construction. The fullers look like they belong more comfortably on a medieval European sword, a Sudanese kaskara, or a Taureg takouba.

And here is a yet another example of outside influences on Indonesian blades, even if we are not sure if it is an European influence, or one from the Islamic world.

The scabbard is newly made.

Dimensions: Overall length 35in., Blade length 29in., Blade's widest point 1.25in.

Thanks for any comments or input.