Sulawesi penai or other klewang(?)

JeffS · 21st January 2025, 12:59 AM

Nice catch. Yes penai, rare handle form. I don't think the adhesive and metal bits were original - I have never seen Toraja wood carving covered in metal. The scabbard would have had a throat and a foot made of horn. You can see remnants of the peg that held the foot which helped hold the two halves tigether. I wouldn't glue the halves together but would carefully repair the split with wood glue using clamps and then use rattan to hold the halves together. You can see where rattan was wrapped around the scabbard based on the lighter wood. The thicker horizontal bands were likely finely woven rattan bands. The widely spaced angled wrap lines on one side don't match the more tightly spacedl lines on the other half, I don't understand why this would be but appears the lower half was covered with rattan similar to the remnants near the throat. Late 19C or early 20C would be my guess. Hope to hear from the experts.

21st January 2025, 12:59 AM	#3
JeffS Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Singapore Posts: 423	Nice catch. Yes penai, rare handle form. I don't think the adhesive and metal bits were original - I have never seen Toraja wood carving covered in metal. The scabbard would have had a throat and a foot made of horn. You can see remnants of the peg that held the foot which helped hold the two halves tigether. I wouldn't glue the halves together but would carefully repair the split with wood glue using clamps and then use rattan to hold the halves together. You can see where rattan was wrapped around the scabbard based on the lighter wood. The thicker horizontal bands were likely finely woven rattan bands. The widely spaced angled wrap lines on one side don't match the more tightly spacedl lines on the other half, I don't understand why this would be but appears the lower half was covered with rattan similar to the remnants near the throat. Late 19C or early 20C would be my guess. Hope to hear from the experts.