Barong from ebay
 

Hello members,

yesterday I bought by ebay this barong :http://www.ebay.com/itm/250913086027...84.m1497.l2649

The pictures from the seller are not the best ones but maybe you can share your thoughts about it with me. The ferrule is demaged a little bit but I think that it will be easy to repair this and I plan to fill it with resin again.

Thank you,

Detlef

IT LOOKS LIKE A GOOD PROJECT TO ME. NOT TOO MUCH WORK TO GET IT LOOKING GOOD AND PERHAPS A CLEANING AND ETCH OF THE BLADE MAY REVEAL A PATTERN. EITHER WAY NOT A BAD DEAL AT THE PRICE. CONGRADULATIONS. I LOOK FORWARD TO PICTURES WHEN YOU GET IT CLEANED UP. :)

Very good adquisition!! I´m sure that with a little of work you will have a beautiful barong in yor collection!!
Congratulations
carlos

Hi Detlef, how are you? Perhaps you can use a spoon to bend the silver(?) ferrule back into its rounding?! What would you use as resin? (I always make resin by grinding a piece of BBQ charcoal fine, mix with woodglue. But this will turn very hard when dry; but perhaps not so suitable for ur 'job')
Good luck friend. Always a joy to turn an 'ugly duck' into an 'elegant swan'
Best, Wouter

this thread should be helpful:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=80

Thank you all for your kind words and tips! :) Will show better pictures when I received the barong and also the steps of restauration.

BTW, could it be a Samal barong?

Regards,

Detlef

Hi Wouter,

to much work at the moment! :mad: :( But don't forget you!!

Regards,

Detlef

Yup looks just like the one I have that is Samal for sure :)

Thank's!! :)

Yesterday I received the barong and I am pleased with it, special by the price I paid for. The front crest of the banati wood pommel is old broken what wasen't clearly to seen by the sellers pictures. The sleeve isn't from silver but from an alloy which is unknown for me, I think a german silver alloy. The wooden pommel is oiled with a good wood oil and shows a nice grain and good patina. The ferrule is bend out and need still a little care but is polished. The blade is partly polished and still need an etch. I will try to use the mixture Indianajones suggested for the resin alternative. Will post pictures when all work is done.

Regards,

Detlef

gorgeous,

can't wait to see the blade etch, the photos seem to have hints of activity, maybe wishfull thinking.

p.s. - superglue works wonders on hairline cracks in wood hilts. keep wicking it in till it's full then it can be sanded or trimmed flush & crack is essentially gone forever.

Thank you for your kind words, hope as well to see a laminated blade! ;)

I am not a fan of superglue by restoration and the cracks are very minor. I have oiled the wood and hope that the cracks don't become bigger and the patina is very nice and will be going by sanding.

Regards,

Detlef

if they're not structurally significant, i'd not use superglue either ;)

Just etched the blade and was positively surprised since the blade have a very nice lamination. Now only need to fill again the open space from the ferrule. Will post pictures when all work is done. I think the investment from 70$ was ok! :D

beautiful pattern, sajen! what did you use to etch?

Hi Spunjer,

I have used vinegar. Heated the blade and the vinegar as well.

Regards,

Detlef

All work is done now! I have used the mixture Indiana suggested. What do you think?

Regards,

Detlef

Hi Detlef,
well nice result for so far, not? I would perhaps carefully cut off the black resin going over the 'edges' and as it looks a bit dry -in comparisson to how the resin should look- put a bit brown wax on it (just on the black resin) (and some dust?).

B.tw. if the blade was forged with 'layers' it would still clearly have been visible when you bought it. The blade would have a yellowish hue (sometimes rainbowhues) and show thin black outlined 'clouds'.
The silverish metal is probably a well used mixture of silver and nickel, obtained from melting down coins.

Your "tribal town-neighbour" (you know who I mean!?) has a nice barong with layers I believe at the moment.

Best greets, Walter

Hi Wouter,

yes, I am as well pleased by the result! Thank you for the tip. :) I have to repeat it two times, the first time it was very shrunken when it was really dry. The photo was taken today and I have done it the second time yesterday evening so I suppose that it still will shrunk. A little bit afterwork will be done when it is dry complete.

Believe me or not, it wasn't visible, look the pictures in # 10.

Hi Wouter,

yes of course I know who you mean. He have not only one, so far I know he have two or three, two I have hold in my hands, very nice examples and much better as mine! :(

Greets,

Detlef

Hi, thought to share some pics of a layered-forged Barong blade -or how d heck does one call it?!?- as it is totally untouched for decades (no use of vinegar at all). Still sharp as . . . . . well one can easily shave with it :D .

Although it looks the small handle protusion below has been broken, they are actually thread-remains as the top of the handle once also had some sort of woven covering (like the black bands).
Greets

excellent job, detlef!!!

Thank you very much!! :)

Hi Wouter,

think that it received an etch at one point in it's history. Beautiful blade!

Greets,

Detlef

R' you gonna make a scabbard for your 'baby' ? I like that protusion on top of the handle, almost like a hens' comb (you know, that lobe on top of a hens' head). They do like a good hens' fight overthere! It also has a nice wellused patine.

Thankfully the scabbards for these are quite simple to make; 2 boards cut in the particular form, scrape away the form of the blade from both boardsurfaces n bind the two together with some loose rattan from your old garden chair (IF you got rattan gardenchairs! he he he). Voilah!!

Actually this sounds much more fun than buying one in good condition! :p
'hands-on-antiques'
Also saw your other lowland? tenegre; your getting a nice Philippine arms collection!
Succes!

Hi Wouter,

when I will have one day boredom it will be a project! :D Have still a very nice antique sheath but this one don't fit. :(

Greets,

Detlef

they get called 'kakatua' grips, for their resemblance to a cockatoo (kakatua) head.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_cv9n5L8_9s...00/kakatua.jpg

the bits tend to get broken off tho. this thread, tho old, has a lot of barong rebuild tips... LINKY

it also shows this member's barong with all it's kakatua bits, as well as a newly made silver one for a restoration.

Detlef, Congratulations on the very nice restoration work that you have done. Now that you have it looking so good I am looking forward to seeing how you do on making a new scabbard for it. Please keep us posted on its progress.

Robert

Nice job Detlef!!

Thank you Robert and Charles! :) A new scabbard will need some time! ;)

Regards,

Detlef