It is not exactly a barong, but what is it?

[Ian]

Hi Ann:

The most common woods are banati (bunti), which is the striped wood so often seen on better quality barung hilts, and kumagong, which is like mahogany and also used for many Moro scabbards (a little darker than banati and without the stripes). I've also seen a type of ebony used on hilts, mostly from Palawan I think. Lesser grade barung may have a variety of other hard woods whose names I don't know.

The metals used on the ferrules (punto) are silver (common -- often coin silver), brass (fairly common), steel/iron (on lesser grade barung particularly), and gold (rarely). The use of gold decoration was formerly restricted to the Sultan and royal family, and was prohibited for anyone else under Moro law (that seems to have changed in recent years ). Often the gold was alloyed with base metals such as copper to form suassa. I've also seen an example of a gold wash over silver. Some post WWII examples may have alumin(i)um fittings, but these are not common.

Silver, and rarely gold, have been used also to create elaborate kakatua for some of the top end junggayan barung (see my avatar -- courtesy of our forumite Battara).

That's as much as I can tell you. Hopefully some of our Filipino forumites can add more details.

Regards,

Ian.

Originally Posted by Ann Feuerbach

Does anybody know off hand what wood is used for the handle? Also, what metal to they tend to use on Barongs for decoration on handles?
Ann