I recently saw a statement saying that in some Philippine tribes, a blade must be cleaned to "whiteness" to be a true battle weapon, which would support what RhysMichael and Spunjer are saying, but also casts some doubt as to whether it's a specific style, or refers to any knife/sword, possibly indicating that a ritual cleansing is all that's required to turn a bladed piece from a tool to a weapon.
Often it appears the task ends up being to gather bits of information from several half truths, hopefully ending up with a/the correct whole at the end.
Mike
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