Mandau for sharing/comments

[Indianajones]

Hello Tatjana, to my oppinion your mandau comes from the Kenya subgroup of Dayak near the border of Sarawak. It are the Kenya who generally use this type (form) of handle and always tend to have a 'busy' decoration with lots of scrolls (the Kajan in comparisson have a more archaïc style of decorating) and the use of the protuding 'points' , which are actually depicting leaches, is more used by the Iban subgroup in Sarawak. Hence my conclusion.

Unfortunately I dont have my map of subgroup locations in Borneo not at hand. So perhaps it would be the upper Mendalam river like Arjan said before indeed or the upper (far inland) Mahakam/Kajan river?

I believe in the book 'hornbills and dragons' there is a map.

Very old blade also. Possibly even older than the handle and scabbard. The very old and best (?) quality blades where called 'mantikei' by the Dayak as they were made by the Ngaju subgroup in South Borneo (slightly up the Baritoriver) in a village called Mantikei. Native iron was used for those blades and even iron from meteorites -according to sayings- was used.
I have had one of those older native iron blades myself and indeed this iron is of the best quality and has more a silver shine in stead of the more common blades who have more nickel in them with a more yellowish shine (in comparisson).

Hope this is of help,