Just Ended On Epray ????

[Gustav]

Pitting on the blade looks rather strange to me.

Is this how banati wood looks like? Tiger striped pieces used for Kakatua do have quite a different look.Yet perhaps it just isn't a root piece?

Only the knob of the ivory (?) end piece looks old to me.

[Robert]

Hello Gustav, and thank you for commenting on this. The pitting on the blade looks pretty standard to me though the blade does look like it has been cleaned before and not oiled or waxed and has started to develop rust again. The wooden hilt though not burl "a root piece" does look like banti to me. As for the butt cap, the seller indicated in his description that it was buffalo horn though the small knob at the end looks more like some type of ivory to me and is very possible that I am totally wrong about its composition. Hopefully many of the questions about this can be better answered after it arrives. Again my thanks for your interest.

Regards,
Robert

[T. Koch]

Originally Posted by Robert Coleman

.... As for the butt cap, the seller indicated in his description that it was buffalo horn though the small knob at the end looks more like some type of ivory to me and is very possible that I am totally wrong about its composition.

Regards,
Robert

Hi Robert and thank you for sharing your new joy! The end cap is not made from horn at all. The very tip or 'nipple' certainly looks to be elephant ivory. The white disc itself, is not so easily identifiable, but from the dense look of it, I'd estimate it to be ivory too, although it also could be bone. If you could get some macro's of it, I should be able to tell for sure.

*All you veterans*: Regarding the fittings looking new - how on earth do you tell? Or is it one of those things that come with experience and handling? I am asking because, to my naive eyes, the silver ferrule looks to be, what I would think is genuinely worn, with the pattern partially erased over time? Has this been artificially worn then?

I might soon be looking to buy my first barung, so it would be very nice to know before then!


All the best, - Thor

[Robert]

Hello Thor and thank you for contributing to this discussion and in particular the ivory/bone end cap. I was pretty sure that the knob part of it was some kind of ivory but the pictures of the cap itself are to indistinct to tell what the main disc part is made of. I also think that the lighting used when the photos were taken was so harsh "as well as possibly some over zealous cleaning" that it caused the wood graining to show extremely well but washed away any trace of patina in the photos that might be present on the hilt itself. I agree that the silver ferrule seems to show honest wear caused by years of handling and do not believe that it was artificially worn. Other old examples of panabas with this blade style exist so I do not believe this to be an item that was made to deceive but just a rare form. I have also seen a hilt of this form before but cannot for the life of me remember where it was that I saw it. Then again another option is that I could be totally wrong about all of this and it could be just a put together piece made of older parts with a newer wooden hilt. As I said earlier, hopefully many of the questions about this can be better answered after it arrives and can be carefully inspected.

Regards,
Robert

[Rick]

Hi Robert,
The example I pointed you to was listed as 20th century .
Speaking only for myself; I am uncomfortable with this blade form .

I would think I should have seen more old examples; this is such a departure from the panabas forms that I am familiar with .

[Robert]

Hello Rick, thank you for your help and welcome to the "what have I gotten myself into now" thread. Including this one and the one that you pointed out I have now seen 4 examples of panabas with this style of blade. This is the only one with this particular style hilt although one did have a plain round handle while the other two had the more traditional faceted style of hilt carving. One other thing that I do remember about the others is that all of them were said to date to the first thirty or so years of the twentieth century. This one, who knows. It could have been made last month for all I know about it. I have spent the last more than few hours searching the forum and internet for pictures of panabas and while I have not located any more with this style of blade I was quite fascinated to find out how many different blade and hilt styles there actually are. I still cannot locate the reference source where I read about this blade shape and what it is supposed to represent or the picture of the other hilt similar to this but I am still looking. Again, thank you for your help and opinions on this.

Regards,
Robert