Barung from Baltimore

[David]

Originally Posted by iskender

good evening, in mind that till now every barongblade i encounterd in its original condition it was polished like hell. i have read that by certain weapons as barongs, kamilans and the moro-keris it was the pride of the maker to polish them up so highly as possible. in thirty years looking at barongs in the netherlands not one was etched.I do not understand where this idee comes from to treat these barongblades with acids?

Iskender, this has been a question amongst collectors for a long time now. I am not sure if you have travelled to the Philippines or not, but it is difficult to tell exactly what is "original condition" of blades once they have left their native lands. Western collectors often polish blades because it is the way THEY think they should be treated. So i am personally uncertain what the general rule of thumb was for the Moro. If you search there are, unfortunately, very few photographs that show Moro warriors with their blades exposed. This is one of the few images i can find online and while the quality of the image is not that good it does seem apparent that this datu is not holding a kris that is in high polish.