Silver Mounted Barong with Swassa

kino · 14th April 2014, 04:25 PM

Congrats on a very fine addition to your arsenal. I had a feeling it wouldn't take long for Gavin to tag it as sold on that listing.
With my experience, silver hilted Barungs are less common than their ivory counterpart. I only know of one other and it's in DaveS' collection. It makes me wonder why they're not as plentiful as ivory Kakatua. I don't think it would be more or less difficult than what's found on a kris, for the metal smith in crafting a silver Kakatua on a Barung.

I find it hard to believe that Chinese in-scripted Barung blades were made by Chinese smiths. I question why would a Sulu get a Chinese blade when there are plenty of good Moro smiths to forge their blades. Twist cores would be a testament to their skill. I have a few Barungs with Chinese characters, when translated by a friend, the inscriptions didn't make sense.
Are there other Moro blades other than Barungs with Chinese chop marks?

CharlesS · 14th April 2014, 04:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kino

Are there other Moro blades other than Barungs with Chinese chop marks?

Darn good point Kino...I have never seen those marks on anything other than barong blade.

Battara · 14th April 2014, 11:38 PM

It would not shock me that this was a way to raise the value of the blade, since Chinese smiths may have been of greater value at one time.

It would be like "SOLINGEN" on Scottish broadswords.

14th April 2014, 04:25 PM	#1
kino Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 1,019	Congrats on a very fine addition to your arsenal. I had a feeling it wouldn't take long for Gavin to tag it as sold on that listing. With my experience, silver hilted Barungs are less common than their ivory counterpart. I only know of one other and it's in DaveS' collection. It makes me wonder why they're not as plentiful as ivory Kakatua. I don't think it would be more or less difficult than what's found on a kris, for the metal smith in crafting a silver Kakatua on a Barung. I find it hard to believe that Chinese in-scripted Barung blades were made by Chinese smiths. I question why would a Sulu get a Chinese blade when there are plenty of good Moro smiths to forge their blades. Twist cores would be a testament to their skill. I have a few Barungs with Chinese characters, when translated by a friend, the inscriptions didn't make sense. Are there other Moro blades other than Barungs with Chinese chop marks?

14th April 2014, 11:38 PM	#3
Battara EAAF Staff Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Louisville, KY Posts: 7,308	It would not shock me that this was a way to raise the value of the blade, since Chinese smiths may have been of greater value at one time. It would be like "SOLINGEN" on Scottish broadswords.