Puzzling Filipino (?) bolo

[Ian]

Several days ago, I sent these pictures to our fellow forumite, xasterix, for his opinion. I delayed putting his views up because I didn't want to bias the discussion. Here is what he said:

I strongly suspect this to either be from Masbate or Northern Samar. Both of these areas are a sort of 'in-between' of Luzon and Visayas blades; I've seen that type of scabbard before from Masbate, but that blade type is also produced in Northern Samar. They simply call it 'Masbad' and is an oddity from their other blades, because it is their only V-grind (and not the usual chisel). I hope you don't mind, I showed it to a friend ... and he thinks it's from outside PH. So there you have two conjectures on that one.

Something further to think about. Personally, I believe this is a Filipino bolo. The intermediate position of Masbate between Bicol and the rest of the Visayas makes xas' suggestion appealing.

Ian.