No worries, guys. :cool:

Just been around this and other forums long enough to know how quickly things can turn, particularly given the mix of ethnicity, nationality and political affiliations we have here.

Thanks. :)

I picked up the kris below in Mindanao from a Muslim (Maranao) trader about a year ago.

I think it's an example of the fusion between two ethnic groups. My theory is that somehow a Visayan who settled in Mindanao ended up with the kris, re-hilted it using their traditional pommel design, and then used it for his everyday 'carry'.

As a remote analogy, it's probably somewhat like WW2 Germans in Russia using the much respected T-34s.

that, a utility knife, and a gun would be my "EveryDay Carry" if I lived there too!

migueldiaz, maybe you can help me answer these...
How common are these laminated blades do you think? What prices do they run at? How many are made per how many tourist swords are made?

I think those would be good indicators for those who don't live in the Philippines. :shrug:

Interesting piece - the blade and scabbard are Maguindanao.......

KuKulzA28, the older ones would be the ones that will have laminated blades. And in two shops I went to last year in Davao City in Mindanao (in a strip retail for Moro crafts called Aldevinco Center), each would have about 15 krisses and only one or two out of the 15 would be older pieces, and they would of course be the ones that will have laminated blades.

That's just anecdotal evidence of course. I'm not really in a position to gauge the relative proportion of the quantities between the old ones vs. the tourist versions, because I haven't surveyed these shops enough.

Thanks for the comment, Battara. If you don't mind my asking as I really don't know, what would be the particular features of the blade and scabbard that make them Maguin.? Thanks in advance :)

The front section of the ganga where the mouth is, is characteristic of being Maguindanao as well as the "shoulderless" scabbard top, which is a style of Maguindanao scabbard according to Cato.

Thanks! :) Here's a close-up view of the gangya, which I need to clean and etch also ...

From a book (Space & Identity, by Sakili) borrowed from a friend, here's a pic of how a modern Tausug carries his kalis (kris):

Didn't they wear it with the bottom edge facing up? When did this change?

Hmm.

The barong pictured in this page is reminiscent of something made by Jimmy Lubian, a man in Sulu who i believe still makes barong (and more often times than not restores them). I believe forum member zamboanga once had a Lubian-made blade. I could be mistaken though.

EDIT: Here's a thread that showcases his work further down in the page: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=1525



The etch work on the MOP inlay in the piece on this thread is less reminiscent of Lubian's work though (at least what little I have seen of Lubian's work).

thepepperskull, thanks for that post.

on a related matter, one of the key leaders of the bandit-terrorist group, abu sayyaf (bearer of the sword), was killed in a military operation last week (his pic is below, and also in post no. 9 of this thread). the u.s. govt. had a bounty of $5 million on said leader's head.

anyway, the reason for this post is that i was looking in newspaper reports for the types of blade this deviant moro group carries (especially the leader). unfortunately, this is all that was reported:

"The weapons taken from the group were a Belgian FN rifle, two M-203 grenade launchers and a Squad Automatic Weapon rifle."

Cool, I never heard of Lubian! It is too bad I have no way of contacting him. I like the look of his work, or at least what I can find of his work on the EA&A forums here.

Modern warfare, modern weapons :shrug: If I was one of those Abu Sayyaf fighters, I would probably have a gun as my main weapon as well. But I'll agree that it's always interesting to see when traditional blades find employment as secondary weapons and machetes.

Barung on the left hand side, last figure .

No ?

This reminds me. A Filipino T-Shirt company made a modern day "Weapons of Moroland" Shield for one of their shirts. Out with the Kris's and Kampilan's...in with the M60s and M16s. :p
http://fototime.com/30AF91F4683BB3A/orig.jpg

Just amazes me really. The Moros were never truly conquered in 1913...just disarmed for the time being. The war continues.

Looks like one to me. I've seen barungs for sale in high end mall shops in Makati; just like the one Miguel posted at the top of this page. They use to be $500, but that was a few years ago. Kind of odd, one barung might end up lopping off heads & the next one goes home with a tourist. But then again, that's been happening for some time.