Sea cow used for Iban hilts

[David]

Originally Posted by fearn

Were I the person with a mystery bone hilt, I'd approach a museum and say that I'm trying to determine the identity of the bone so that I can properly document it for CITES, or some such.

That's not a bad approach. If i were in NYC i'd probably go to the Museum of natural history where they are likely to have both manatee skeletons AND dayak swords.
Michael, do you have a good Natural History museum nearby?