How old is the kampilan as a form?

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Timo Nieminen

The original Italian is:
uno con un gran terciado (che è como una scimitarra, ma più grosso)

The whole original text is available at https://it.wikisource.org/wiki/Relaz...torno_al_mondo

For "terciado".
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terciado.jpg
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showpost.php?p=165771

Since it's explicitly scimitar-like, it doesn't sound like a kampilan to me. If it's similar to modern Philippine weapons, a big pira or a panabas? But long curved swords were not unusual in the area - a classic weapon of "Japanese" pirates. A long dao/dha/katana-like sword could be described as "like a scimitar, but larger".

Timo, we cross posted and I just saw your outstanding links and superb assessment, which describe what I was trying to say perfectly! Thank you!
The term 'scimitar' is a classic example of this kind of dilemma......rather than being an exact weapon form, it is a 'description' and most commonly found in literary parlance. Excellent!