Unknown Short Sword

[David]

I think that with a piece like this we might not be able to make a pure ethnographic connection. We aren't considering this to be a particularly old weapon, are we? It has already been noted that the blade is made from a large rasp or file. In contemporary times blade smiths can get ideas and parts from all kinds of sources. I certainly see the similarity of the hilt and handle to the kukri. Does that necessarily mean the origin is Nepal? what is a smith just happened to have these parts lying about and decided to fit them into his next project. People build with the parts they have available to them, ergo the file as a blade.
The shape of the blade is indeed very much like a Filipino ginunting or tinari/binulang. And my first thought when i saw that tab of leather on the sheath was that same feature is often found on tengere sheaths like the one i posted below from Charles' collection. Of course, these traits don't identify this definitely a Filipino anymore than the ferrule identify it as Nepal. It seems a bit tricky to place the origin of a weapon on merely one feature like a ferrule. Since no one has ever seen anything else quite like this it is possible that this could have been a one-off project made by a smith from just about anywhere, using influences of other ethnographic weapons he has seen...or it could indeed be a less common swords from Nepal that no one here has ever seen before.