Filipino golok that has seen some action

[Ian]

I picked this small golok up about nine years ago at a gun show. A WWII veteran was walking around trying to sell a couple of bring back items from his time in the Philippines. He had landed with Macarthur in the Visayas.

He had two talibon that were ordinary souvenirs that we see all over the place, and he had the knife shown below which he said was his "jungle knife." It was not a thing of beauty but one of great function and it had certainly seen some use in its day. The wooden scabbard had been repaired many times, and is kept together with twine, electrical tape, and canvas. He really liked this old knife--a lot of memories--but he had nobody to pass it on to, so he decided to sell it that day. I promised to give it a good home. For fifty bucks we both felt we got a good deal.

The knife reminds me of how many different styles one can find in the Philippines. He said he acquired it "somewhere in the Visayas" and that it was of local manufacture. However, it is odd in that the blade has a cut out section along the edge, just in front of the hilt. I've seen this before on Visayan knives, but it is really uncommon and I'm not sure where these are made.

Like many knives in the Philippines, the style of this one seems to have been borrowed from elsewhere and adapted locally. The closest representation I have found is in Traditional Weapons of the Indonesian Archipelago, by Albert van Zonneveld (p. 30) where he describes a Bangkung Sulawesi. He notes that this "a short, firm machete with straight back and convex edge tapering at the point. The hilt is short and thick." I have copied the entry below.

There may well be other Indonesian or Malay knives that also resemble this one, and our friends on Keris Warung Kopi might have some further ideas.

Has anyone else seen similar examples from the Philippines?

Ian.


Overall length 14 inches
Length of blade 10.5 inches