Another eBay bolo to clean up
 

Just won this. :) I'll post photos once it's here, and cleaned up a bit. In the meantime, here's the link to the completed auction w/photos.

Looks like some sort of Luzon bolo to me, with the side/top faceted semi-figural horn hilt, plate-reinforced peened tang, faceted ferrule to match hilt, pinky cut-out, general shape, etc. Any other ideas on it? I wonder how in blazes it got to the bottom of a mine shaft in Butte, Montana?

Another rusty ethnographic pigsticker

https://missoulacurrent.com/opinion/...a-history-war/
You should upload pictures to the site; for the database. :)

Here, and maybe there too, as soon as I have it, and have cleaned it up enough to bring out the design worked into the blade. I'm wondering exactly what that's going to turn out to be.

Is it considered respectable to stabilize and restore horn-hilt insect damage with polymer fillers?

Hello Treeslicer,

I've been so free to post some pictures from the ebay auction. I would call it bolo, itak or matulis. Personally I wouldn't hold on to much on a specific name. Robert, Ian or Jose will be able to tell you from where on Luzon this piece coming. I don't think that the damage of the hilt is insect bite but coming from moisture. Here you can see similar pieces from my own collection: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...highlight=itak
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...highlight=itak

And I forget, I personally wouldn't try to restore the hilt, I just would oil it.

Regards,
Detlef

Thanks very much for the links, Detlef, and for posting the photos. The linked photos you provided seem to confirm my guess at the ID. Has anyone seen one marked "PM" before?

Yes, many times, it's a very common marking.

Regards,
Detlef

Could it be that it is a homemade knife that by just coincidence looks like a bolo? Bowie clip point blade?

Hello BBJW,

definitely not IMVHO. :)

Completely matching every diagnostic point of a known Luzon bolo type is several coincidences too many, IMHO. :D

TS:

This is an Ilokano knife with a "double-clipped" blade--a common knife style. The hilt with a small "pinky" notch is also typical of Ilokano work. The wooden(?) hilt is in rough shape and has been "weathered," but overall I don't think this knife is particularly old--probably post-WWII. Knives of this style were common bringback items by U.S. servicemen in WWII and later.

Ian.

Yup. Going through stuff already posted here (including yours), I'd picked up a few of the Ilokano characteristics to look for (which is how I spotted this item). One thing that caught my attention as a deviation from the usual 1940's-and-later Clark-area bringback is the elevated protrusion at the ricasso (similar to some of the examples that Detlef linked). What (if anything) does that characteristic tell us about the provenance? At this point, my ignorance of such details is vast. :confused:

Good question! The "nub" at forte on these knives is interesting and I'm not sure if it is an Ilokano feature or is shared more widely. I'm inclined to think the latter, although there are many Ilokano blades that have this feature. So far, it has not been linked to a particular region. A decade or so ago, some of our older members who no longer post here described knives from Batangas with the same feature.

Your question needs more research.

Ian.

Here's some photos. As you can see, restoration has begun. The hilt is horn, not wood. The most proximal part of the pecked-out design spells out "PHILIPPINES", and the blade is right-hand chisel-ground. :)

Should be a V-grind on an Ilokano knife. The inscription is typical of post-WWII knives from Central Luzon.

Ian