Carlo so far you have the most info Ive seen on this style. Ive never heard the pira influence before. In Cecil's catalog he mentions they were made by grinding of the top side of the blade (though I bet instead of grinding away precious steel they were probably forged that way at least from a contruction point it would be easier to forge than to grind by hand that much steel) to reduce weight but keep a strong cutting edge. I do know that most of the Shandigan pieces I have seen pop up on the market have been WWII era pieces, but there are a number of earlier ones that pop up on occaision. However, with dating schemes the way they are (guessing schemes more like it) its hard to tell if these early pieces are post 1900 or 300 years old. Though what it sounds like from what you have been told, and the higher incidence of newer made barongs with this feature, it may have been a newer (eg. post American era) invention. It would be interesting to see if anyone had a Shandigan barong with provenance earlier than the American era. Anyways, just my rambling guesses.
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