Two for One

[Ian]

Hi drac.

Thanks for posting these two interesting examples. I think Jim has provided an excellent account of how Spanish Colonial styles moved around the Pacific. I agree that the example you show may well have a Phlippines connection. The long, single, down-turned quillion was also a feature of some Chinese maritime short swords/large knives encountered in the South China Sea.

Your other item which resembles a small-bladed panabas with a longish handle is most likely a tabas. This is an agricultural tool mainly, and some believe that the panabas was developed from such a tool/axe.