Slightly unusual Barung

[David]

Originally Posted by Spunjer

as far as whether the barung was "born with" the scabbard:
one way to check whether the barung was born with the scabbard was to dismantle the scabbard itself. every now and then the rattan bind are missing, so this is easily done. once it's dismantle, you can lay the blade on the notch carved out for it, and since each blade is unique, it should have that "Cinderella shoes" fit to it, meaning a perfect match. in this particular piece, the binds look original to the piece, so i won't go into that, rather i placed the blade on the scabbard just to show the clearance from the sides and tip. very, very tight. hope this helps...

Well, what that might prove is that the scabbard was made specifically for the blade, but it doesn't prove it was "born with" it. I am not saying it was not, mind you, merely pointing out that your method is no guarantee that the sheath was made at the same time as the blade. Regardless, it is a nice and unusual piece.