A Beautiful Moro Kris!

[F. de Luzon]

This is the latest addition to my Moro kris collection (http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=22224). It has a 13 luk, wavy and laminated blade (acid etched) with separate gangya, two brass stirrups, corded hilt with silver trim and clamp, and banati wood kakatua pommel. The scabbard is made of very light weight wood with three bands made of brass. One side of the scabbard is painted black while the other is natural wood finish. I think it's a beautiful Moro kris!

[Battara]

Nice blade. Glad it is near complete.

I would say this is Maguindanao, with recent silver mounts on the hilt.

Still, perhaps late 19th to early 20 century.

[F. de Luzon]

Originally Posted by Battara

Nice blade. Glad it is near complete.

I would say this is Maguindanao, with recent silver mounts on the hilt.

Still, perhaps late 19th to early 20 century.

Thanks Battara! The silver was heavily tarnished when I got this blade. It was so difficult to polish. I was quite surprised the way the kris turned out in general. Here are some pictures before cleaning and etching.

[Sajen]

Hello F. de Luzon,

agree with everything Jose has said, nice piece! I personally would have cleaned/polished the blade a little bit more before etching. And I would give the hilt from banati wood a little bit TLC, the beautiful grain will come out much better. And oil the hilt to prevent the wood for further cracking.

Regards,
Detlef

[kai]

I'd be tempted to limit the origin of this kris to post-Span/Am war to turn of the 19th century. What are the dimensions, especially blade length and total length?

Interesting blade with an unusually narrow streak of mild steel added to the higher-carbon steel in the middle of the sandwich construction. I agree with Detlef that some more polishing by hand and repeated etching would be worth a try: It's possible that neither of the steels will exhibit laminations of noticeable contrast; however, a finer polish may bring out some additional details including differential hardening, etc. as well as probably a more crisp border between the steels.

Regarding treating wood, you'll have to be careful in a tropical climate: If your kris have to adapt to a (continuously) air-conditioned environment, it would certainly be good to do this slowly (and probably avoiding fluctuations by storage/display in some sort of cabinet); in this case repeated treatment with raw linseed oil, possibly a final treatment with boiled linseed/tung oil, and an optional topping with microcrystalline wax would probably be a good idea. If you can't control the environment that closely, natural oils can lead to grow of mould! In this case it may be preferable to repeatedly utilize thin paraffin oil (with a final layer of microcrystalline wax) or no treatment at all and risking some more cracks (stable and controlled storage conditions would be important for long-term preservation and to minimize damage).

Regards,
Kai

[kai]

BTW, the scabbard is a later replacement (post-WW2) with apparently more recent brass bands: I'd probably try to remove the black paint by sanding and treat the wood with boiled linseed/tung oil and, after some curing, final layers of shellack rather than wax (or no oils and shellack only).

Regards,
Kai

[F. de Luzon]

Thank you for your comments Detlef and Kai!

While I was cleaning the blade, I noticed how the "effects of time" (patina?) was also slowly disappearing. I wanted to preserve that and thus opted to leave some parts in its present state. I'm monitoring active rust and I will probably do some more light cleaning on the blade. I also want to even out the etching on some parts.

Kai, the blade is 19.5 inches and with the hilt just slightly over 25 inches (up to the tip of the tail of the pommel).

Thank you all for your interest and advice. Please feel free to share more of your thoughts. I'm still learning and also hoping to one day be able to engage in a constructive exchange of ideas with you.

All the best,

F. de Luzon