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Originally Posted by George
Here is a quick shot of the other side of the blade. It has the arrow-like pattern you speak of but with a slightly different shape to it; a bit less pronunciation which I attribute to hammering.
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Thanks, George! That are 2 additional twist cores to account for the broadening of the blade! I'd posit that actually the pattern on the right side is what the
panday had in mind, and that it happened to work out less perfectly on the left side...
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My experience with Chinese swords is that twist core of this creation (control in pattern, uniformity, etc.) is found in older pieces (pre-20th century at minimum).
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There certainly were Chinese steel blades being exported to the Philippines as evinced by Barong blades with Chinese marks. However, considering the long history of twist core Moro kris blades, I'd assume that this
ranti was locally forged by a Moro
panday.
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But the material on the scabbard reminds me of what is found in WWII frogs, etc.
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I believe the scabbard to be older than that - it seems more likely to me that fittings were added later or just got replaced...
Regards,
Kai