Questions on an anak alang blade

[Laowang]

Originally Posted by Green

Anyway, cut or no cut, it is fine by me...but it would be good to know for sure if the blade is original or repaired.And where it is from.

Impossible to say with any certainty, I think.

The type form is common enough that judging from the wear it is most likely an old blade. It's not a rare enough form to bother forging and then artificially aging.

Because it's a blade type common to peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra, in the absence of original dress it would be difficult to hazard a guess as to origin with absolute certainty. Sumatra is a fair guess, but peninsular Malaysia is also possible. As Alan has noted many times, the farther you get from the royal courts (and he's mostly talking about Java), the more deviation there is from the original type form. Leaf-shaped blades with a slight bulge in the middle are not uncommon from Sumatra, so I would be willing to buy that the blade is original length, with a slight deviation from the form. It's also possible that it's been shortened, but a longer blade wouldn't necessarily account for the bulge, either.

If you asked me, I would say old blade, Sumatran origin, original length, but that's a gut feel, not an assessment with any evidence behind it.