A Piso Podang With An Unusual Blade

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Aleksey G.

Guys, I was wondering if anybody knows what is the meaning or significance of the gold/brass sections on the spine of the blades? I see'em on blades from quite a few cultures? Thank you.

Aleksey has asked a very interesting question here, and I'm surprised nobody has answered with all the expertise here in this field.
While way outside my usual fields of study, it seems that these transverse lines in numerics of three usually ? do occur on various SE Asian swords. I've see them on dha, and some others, but usually scribed lines, not brass filled.

In Borneo there are often pierced holes in many parang ihlang, which are sometimes filled with brass but as if some are filled while some arent. Some have suggested these as tally numbers, but I dont think that has been generally accepted.

Best regards,
Jim