A Lovely and Interesting Malay Sword

[CharlesS]

I realize there has been some concern regarding the pommel, and I am only now back home and able to get pics on the thread. If you study the pics carefully you will see that the lion pommel loses all its detail at the line where the silver grip reaches it. You will also see that the silver is custom fitted to the features it encases.

To me this is an indication that this pommel was made for this sword. Could it still be cut down from something else, say a 'cane grip', of course it could, but I don't think it's as likely considering the detail we see here. Fact of the matter is that we likely will never know, but at the very least we do know that a great deal of effort went into fitting the pommel and it was not just some 'willy nilly' glue on.