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Originally Posted by Henk
The copper inlay and probably the cleaning of the blade with the black spots left and the rough finshing of the blade is not that of a fine and well finished mandau with inlay.
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Hi Henk,
I agree with Willem that the blade could be much older. I think you're comparing it with the more discussed inlaid blades originating from the Mahakam area!
Therefore it looks like this blade is very poorly executed and the inlaid marks are different as used to be done in the upper Mahakam area (which look more appealing).
This blade however is made by dayaks more from the South / South-east part of Borneo, and therefore it looks different. Though I've seen several old pieces (also museumpieces dated) which had similar blades whith these kind of "tourist looking" shaped inlay.
But I can understand your thoughts of this being a newer blade.
The problem is that the new/touristic ones also often have these S shaped inlay (called "mata-djoh") along the spine of the blades. But those blades are worse in quality and normally very thin.
Roy's blade looks like a good heavy blade (as far as I can judge it on the photo), with typical implemented "mata kalong" inlay (shape of the figures near the hilt) for the region as mentioned.
Maurice