Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

tom hyle · 21st April 2005, 01:08 AM

That's a gunong, alright. the blade and handle are in the "backward" configuration sometimes seen on kris sundang, which is sometimes thought to be a Visayan influence (which is more common AFAIK on gunong than on kris sundang). The MOP also resembles Visayan work, and I wonder if this may be either a non-Moro piece or a traveller; either way more likely North than South of Moroland. The thin wire bindings sunk into grooves in the scabbard are very similar to those on the sheath of a Luzon(?) sword I recently got (not a matulis, I guess; it looks like a scramasax, but with a hoof-shaped horn handle).

21st April 2005, 01:08 AM	#2
tom hyle Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Houston, TX, USA Posts: 1,254	That's a gunong, alright. the blade and handle are in the "backward" configuration sometimes seen on kris sundang, which is sometimes thought to be a Visayan influence (which is more common AFAIK on gunong than on kris sundang). The MOP also resembles Visayan work, and I wonder if this may be either a non-Moro piece or a traveller; either way more likely North than South of Moroland. The thin wire bindings sunk into grooves in the scabbard are very similar to those on the sheath of a Luzon(?) sword I recently got (not a matulis, I guess; it looks like a scramasax, but with a hoof-shaped horn handle).