Gunong...recent or vintage?

[shayde78]

Originally Posted by Sajen

Agree with Jose and Ian. May I ask how long this dagger is? The fittings will be from silver plated brass.

Best regards,
Detlef

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. It measures 5.25" for the blade-8" overall.

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by shayde78

It measures 5.25" for the blade-8" overall.

Hi Shayde,

so it's one of this tiny souvenir gunongs.

Regards and a Happy New Year,
Detlef

[David]

Originally Posted by Sajen

Hi Shayde,

so it's one of this tiny souvenir gunongs.

Regards and a Happy New Year,
Detlef

Well, such a size is pretty true to form to the original purpose and intent of the gunong so i wouldn't slight it due to its length.
I have an old one with the same exact blade length, slight longer over all and it certainly isn't a souvenir piece.

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by David

Well, such a size is pretty true to form to the original purpose and intent of the gunong so i wouldn't slight it due to its length.
I have an old one with the same exact blade length, slight longer over all and it certainly isn't a souvenir piece.

Hello David,

it isn't only it's length what let me think like this, compare the wormanship from your beautiful example with the one in question. Spunjer has shown once similar examples, I've looked for this thread but can't find it. I own also two of this examples, not so nice like the one in question. I have to look for to take some pictures.

Regards,
Detlef

[David]

Yes Detlef, there may be other factors here that led you to that conclusion, but i was responding to you response to the size and how that guided your souvenir conclusion. This is certainly not the highest quality manufacture, but in the old days we encounter many different levels of quality and it is not because the lower quality knife is necessarily meant for tourists, just for people with less money to spend. But really any modern made gunong is not really being made for native use in the field, is it? No one is actually carrying these blades day-to-day for their original intended purpose so really all these modern gunongs are made for collectors or tourists. My point about the size of Shayde's gunong is that it is actually a reasonable repro at this size to many original old models.

[shayde78]

Thanks for the comments, gents.
So, it's not the size that counts!
Beautiful example, David.

[David]

Originally Posted by shayde78

So, it's not the size that counts!

Well, as i understand it this was originally intended to be a small weapon, one that could be easily concealed.
It was when colonial American powers placed a ban on swords, i believe, that we saw the gunong lengthen to compensate.