While I can't speak with any certainty about the bilao daggers, the blades of the gile's seem to have become thinner with the advent of surplus milatary vehicle steel, while older pieces often had a darkened depression in the center with a central rib running from top to bottom.
This same chacteristic is/was also seen in spears from the area, with older heads having deeper depressions just as in the knives.
On newer spearheads it's my understanding that they'll crosshatch and darken the area in an attempt to achieve the same effect as in the deeper, older models.
I also suspect that the belt loop may have been a later repair/modification.
As to the horn, aside from water buffalo and cattle, oxen are still used in areas to arrid for the buffalo as beasts of burden with considerable amount of variation in the color of the horn, not just between different animals but even the same horn along its length.
Mike
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