Water Buffalo Handle Moro Kriss

[Battara]

Originally Posted by Jazz

Bill, excellent example. Always boggle my mind how the material wasn't used as much by the moros...

There are more Moro horn pommels than you think - I have also seen barong pommels made of horn, and then many pira pommels are made of horn.......

[Jazz]

...but you'd think it would be more prevalent, like how it was utilized in Visayas and Luzon.

[Battara]

I the Visayas you do see some tenegre pieces from Panay where some of the pommel heads are of solid horn. More often the hand guards (where one exists) are of horn.

In Luzon you will find more horn hilts. Many of them come from the lowlanders like Batangas, the Tagalog regions, and Ilocos Norte. Many katipunan and 1st PI republic era pieces have horn hilts.

Also, I forgot that some Moro gunongs have horn hilts.

Here is an example of what I call a Katipunan horn hilted bolo in my collection:

[Battara]

Here is another horn hilted piece I have that is a presentation piece from General Lukban to his men for fighting in the Spanish-American War (script is in Tagalog):

[Battara]

And here is another one of my daggers made during and celebrating the 1st PI republic with horn hilt from Ilocos Norte:

[Battara]

Other Philippine groups used horn on hilts as well. Here is one of my pieces that is a datu piece from the Mandaya (neighbors to the Moros on Mindanao):