budiak?
 

Hello,

This came to us yesterday. The seller is from Bacolod (Negros Occidental). Part of his father's collection.

OAL: 11.5 inches/ blade: 8 inches. The collar, in my opinion, is a water 'gi' pipe.

This a budiak or a spear from the lumads in the province?

Question: how do I clean the blade (or better not to tamper with it)?

Kind regards

Yves

Hello Yves,

This appears to be a very old budiak. The surface oxidation looks well stabilized, at least judging from the color and apparent texture of the surface. If there is no active red rust on the surface, I would be inclined just to oil it, wrap in a rag dampened with oil, and leave it as it is. If there is active rust, then gentle removal with sandpaper or steel wool would be a good idea, then oil it.

Attempts to remove the dark oxidation would require some effort. Since the surface is pitted, an acidic de-rusting solution or gel might be an option. However, it really depends on what your intentions are. If you just want to preserve an old artifact, then a conservative (less aggressive) approach is the way to go IMHO.

Others here may well have a different perspective or recommendations.

budiak?
 

Yes. that's what I'm gonna do in order to preserve this old artifact. :-)

This spearhead certainly doesn't look Moro to me.

Regards,
Kai

I feel the same and wonder, Ian, what about this spear lead you to identify it as a budiak? It doesn't have the any of the usual features i would expect to see on a Moro budiak.

Kai and David,

This is a spear(head) (budiak) and identified by Yves as a Lumad example from Negros Occidentale. I don't see any reference to a Moro origin in what Yves or I have written above. It appears to have a socketed head, which is clearly not of Moro constructioon. The leaf-shaped blade is generally consistent with Moro spear heads, as is the lenticular cross section, but that's where the similarity ends. It's unclear from the picture if the blade has a tang or the pipe is a socket for attachment of a shaft. If it has a tang, then it might be of Moro construction, perhaps designed for hunting rather than for war. Krieger's plates show a similarly shaped broad blade as Moro in origin.

Ian.


Looking again, there may be some confusion in what Yves wrote: This a budiak or a spear from the lumads in the province?

I read this as an affirmative statement: This (is) a budiak or a spear from the lumads in the province (Since Yves is a native speaker, I assumed he was telling us that budiak is the term for "spear" in that province.)

Alternatively, one could read this as a question: (Is) this a (Moro) budiak or a spear from the lumads in the province?

budiak
 

Hi,

I have shown the pictures of this spear head/budiak to my dear colleague (source of my and my father's endless supply of moro blades, he he). In his honest opinion, upfront, it may not a moro budiak. He says and I quote 'the moro budiaks: long and short, that he has seen, have a more slender profile.' The one featured on this thread is quite 'roundish.'And the 'socketed' feature is not moro. (However, there is a tang going 3/4 the length of the collar socket).

But he's not entirely sure. As he state that he has not seen all variants of the moro budiaks.

I have some pictures of lumad budiaks somewhere...and ask those friendly guys from Bacolod on their opinion.

Will update on this one.

Kind regards,

Yves

The following picture is from Krieger, Plate no. 6, and the description. Note, Example 11 which is said to be Moro, Mindanao.

Attachment 232149

Plate 6. Spears used ceremonially and in war; shafts ornamented and figured with brass and silver overlay.

1. Cane shaft, rough-surfaced iron blade of good form. Moro.
2. Elliptic spearhead of iron with socket. Igorot, Luzon.
3. Bilaterally barbed iron spearhead with socket. Luzon.
4. Brass pike head: Two mythical bird figures supporting blade. Blade and socket engraved with geometric figures. Moro.
5. Fine workmanship in iron shown in deeply grooved and socketed spearhead; shaft ferruled with figured silver. Shaft is tasseled and capped with a spud of carabao horn at base. Moro, Mindanao.
6. Head of fine ironwork, deeply grooved and provided with median ridge. Ferrule of brass, collar cord and tassel, rattan shaft capped with spike at basal end, Moro.
7-8. Steel blades, shafts of palmwood wrapped with brass wire: Figured brass ferrule, Bagobo, southeastern Mindanao.
9. Long Iron blade, iron ferrule at neck; handed rings of rattan on shaft, tassel cord. Moro, Mindanao.
10. Blade of iron, thickened at distal end and tapering toward shaft, hardwood shaft ferruled with rattan and punched with brass rivets. Northern Luzon.
11. Short and broad iron spearhead fastened to rattan shaft by iron tang. Looped cord attached to neck of blade and to foreshaft of hardwood. Moro, Mindanao.
12. Finely wrought-iron spearhead; brass ferrule and iron shaft socket; hardwood shaft wound with spirals of figured brass and sheathed with alternating brass and silver hands. Bagobo, Mindanao.

Well, weapons from the Philippines have always been a secondary interest for me so i'm sure i don't have all my terminology right. I had always assumed that "budiak" referred specifically to a particular form of Moro spear, not a general term for any spear from the Philippines (i have found "sibat" as a Filipino word for spear or spearhead). Can anyone trace this word for me and how it came to be applied to Filipino spears. Online dictionaries are very inadequate. I cannot find it as a Filipino word, though of course, there would be more specific tribal languages throughout the area. The word does appear in Malay as "Cultivate", though i can't quite see the connection there to a spearhead. Does anyone know the origin of the word in this context?

Here is a spearhead with similar profile to Tanaruz’ and Krieger’s.
This one is definitely Moro. Same loop cord attachment as in Krieger’s.

It wasn't the profile that made me question the original posting, but rather the what seems to be the complete lack of a bolster which is clearly present in your example.
I guess no one knows the answer to my previous question regarding the origins of the word "budiak" or how it came to be used as a word for spears in the Philippines?