Some barong/barung

[Timo Nieminen]

An index. Individual photos follow.

[Timo Nieminen]

#1 and #2 were previously presented in http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15389

#1: Mid/late 20th century? My initial guess was 1970s. Blade is uneven - it hasn't been ground enough to remove waviness in the whole surface. Large, light, and cuts beautifully. Blade is 5.35mm at the hilt, 3.6mm mid-blade. 552g, 702g with scabbard. I commented earlier that this "inspires me to get more barongs!" Clearly, it did, and I blame most of the ones in this thread on it.

#2: Tiny, a child's barong? 4.45mm at the hilt, 3.95 mid-blade. 280g.

#3 and #4 were previously presented in http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showpo...3&postcount=38

#3: Middle-sized, light for the size, and agile. Grip is wrapped in cord which is glued down and covered with some kind of glue. Feels sort-of waxy. Comfortable and secure grip. 6.25mm at the hilt, 4.5mm mid-blade. 564g.

#4: Hollow-forged blade. Narrow horn collar, heavy hilt so it feels a little hilt-heavy. Scabbard in poor shape (splits along the grain). Inlay on the grip. 7.55mm at hilt, 4.2mm mid-blade. 612g, 753g with scabbard.

#5: Long blade, chromed but some flaking off and rust spots, so I need to fix this. Scabbard is only partially there, with fire damage. Possibly the missing part burned off. Whether the blade was in it when it happened, I don't know; if it was, perhaps bad things happened to temper. Short conical collar and two separate metal rings, separated by thin cord binding. 6.9mm at the hilt, 4.75mm mid-blade. 696g, 843 with remains of scabbard.

[Timo Nieminen]

#6: Tourist barong. Long slender scabbard with lots of carving, with a turtle and something that looks like a rat, and curly foliage. Blade is much shorter than the scabbard, and crudely made and finished. I wouldn't trust this blade to be anything other than mild steel. No collar, some rattan binding on the grip. 3.95mm at the hilt, 3.8mm mid-blade. 382g, 692 with scabbard.

#7: A delicate lightweight barong. Not short, but it's light for the size. The blade is thin and narrow. I think the collar is brass, but it's hard to tell, because it's slathered with epoxy inside and out. Scabbard is covered in fancy woven rattan(?). 5.1mm at the hilt, 3.5 mid-blade, 445g, 552 with scabbard.

#8: Ornate hilt and scabbard. Scabbard is bound in what looks like very thin rattan, which is breaking and falling off (which is why it's wrapped in plastic). Collar and 2 metal rings, separated by twisted wire binding. Decorative plugs in pommel and wooden part of grip - these might be bone. The hilt has been varnished over the metal rings and wood and plugs, and it looks like the wire binding went on after varnishing. According to a (modern) label that came with it, "Mindanao, late 19th/early 20th". I would have said later than that. 5.85mm at hilt, 3.7mm mid-blade. 650g, 914 in scabbard.

#9: Interesting barong. There's a hole in the blade, which is wired to the hilt. There's a pierced coin at the junction of blade and hilt; the tang goes through the coin. Blade is hollow-forged. Crescent marks on both sides of the blade. The tip is pitted. According to a note written on the scabbard, this was collected in 1931. 7.9mm at the hilt, 5.55mm mid-blade, 637g, 814g in scabbard.

#10: Decorated blade. Flared collar. I don't like flared collars like this - the grip is not as comfortable. Lightweight. 5.9mm at hilt, 3.5mm mid-blade. 512g, 693g in scabbard.

[Timo Nieminen]

#11: Copper collar. Scabbard is heavy and thick, with MOP. Neutral feel in the hand - a very MOR barong. Except for the copper collar. 6.05mm at the hilt, 4.3mm mid-blade. 656g, 1064g in the chunky scabbard.

#12: Another MOR-feeling barong. The tip is rounded, probably after the original tip broke off. Might have also been deliberately rounded for safety - it isn't sharp at the end. Considering the blade is quite a bit thinner than that of #11, the weights are surprisingly similar. 5.5mm at the hilt, 3.2mm mid-blade. 648g, 891 in scabbard.

#13: Decorated blade. Lightweight. Collar is flared, and appears to be aluminium. There's a crack on the edge of the blade at the middle of the blade. 5.0mm at hilt, 3.15mm mid-blade, 502g.

#14: Modern barong, came from Malaysia (don't know where it was made, probably made 2013). Blade is rather convex, so it's heavy for its size. Scabbard is fairly heavy - the wood is quite dense. Grip swells a lot towards the pommel. 6.0mm at hilt, 5.1mm mid-blade, 720g, 1010g in scabbard.

#15: Modern barong, the Cold Steel Moro Barong. I don't know where these were made. They were sold with a scabbard, but this didn't have one by the time it reached me second-hand. Enormous and chunky. Grip is fatigue-inducingly fat. I'm told this one is somewhat of a mutant, with the blade being thicker than usual; it doesn't thin as much as it should moving from spin to edge (apparently atypical of this Cold Steel model). As a result, it has a quite steep secondary grind at the edge, and doesn't look like it would cut terribly well. If the grip is thinned, and the blade thinned near the edge, and the blade given appropriate taper as it approaches the hilt, it would be improved. 6.8mm at the hilt, 5.5mm mid-blade, so the thickness at the spine is OK, and a chunky chunky 968g (according to the specs for the model, it should be 853g, so it's quite a bit overweight).

[Sajen]

Hello Timo,

by example #5 I would try to remove the plating. No. 6 could be a Palawan barong IMHO.

Regards,
Detlef

[Ian]

Hi Timo:

You have some interesting examples here and I would like to offer my two cents on a few of them.

No. 2 has a hilt very similar to the kakatua on a N. Borneo/Sabah barung that I posted some time ago. This may well be another example.

No. 6 has a scabbard that is definitely from Palawan. I have a similar scabbard on a nice bangkung (second half of 20th C), and if you search on this site for a "Palawan bangkung" I think you will find the name of the tribe that it came from. I don't recall who they are now.

No. 7 has a hilt similar to No. 2 and again I think this one is from N. Borneo/Sabah. Certainly the scabbard is atypical for Sulu Archipelago work. The Yakan, however, sometimes use similar geometric rattan wraps. But I would go with N. Borneo based on the kakatua.

No. 9 is an interesting arrangement with the hole through the blade and silver wire binding through the hole. I think this is likely to be Sulu Archipelago in origin. Zelbone has a bangkung with a hole in the same place and a wrapping that passes through it. Not a commonly found feature.

No. 10 has okir work on the blade that I again associate with N. Borneo/Sabah. I have a few barung decorated more crudely but in a similar manner that came from Kota Marudu in Sabah. There are pictures of these barung on this site.

No. 11 could be Yakan. Cato describes short ferrules as being a feature of some Yakan barung. The use of MOP on the scabbard is also common with Yakan work made for tourist consumption.

No. 13 again reminds me of N. Borneo/Sabah and the kakatua on this one is similar to the style of Sabah barung that I have shown previously here.

No. 14 is also likely to be N.Borneo/Sabah in origin based on the shape of the blade and a kakatua that are atypical of the Sulu Archipelago.

Just my personal views and I welcome the thoughts of others.

Ian.

P.S. Here is the link to N. Borneo/Sabah barung on the old web site: http://www.vikingsword.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001304.html

[Timo Nieminen]

Thanks for comments/info. Looking at long slender Palawan barong, I think I want one. The carving on the scabbard of my #6 is nice, but the blade is but a poor shadow of what it should be.