What is it?

[kai]

Hello Brian,

These swords seem to come from an area including East Sulawesi up to the Moluccas. Apparently there was not a lot of smithing done on the many smaller islands (no iron sources) and blades have apparently been traded. Since these cultures were not rich, most of these swords would have been multi-purpose tools: weapons, status symbols, and utility machetes.

The higher status pade seem to be those with the highly flared blade tips (3-4 inches broad); and some of these also have huge hand guards (usually crafted from horn and attached with rattan) covering the whole grip area.

Well-preserved examples usually have a triangular pommel end piece (attached with a single nut and rattan binding). If any, hair is bound to the hilt as a larger tuft (in the apparently genuine examples). In your example, the small tufts of hair are attached by light-colored wooden plugs in holes drilled into the wood; this is typical for the Moro kampilan as well as for the swords from the Timor group of islands (South of the pade area). My best guess is that this is a later addition not done in the original culture: maybe the sword traveled to other islands, maybe an overzealous dealer upgraded it a long time ago.

I'm adding a few more pics of pade (from Arjan, Artzi, and Martin). Note that the last one shows another pommel variant; pade from the Kei islands seem to have more bent pommels ending parallel to the blade:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showpo...3&postcount=26

Regards,
Kai