Unknown Short Sword

[werecow]

Reminds me of a Filipino ginunting.

[Athanase]

The construction of handle and scabbarde reminds me a Kukri

[chmorshuutz]

It reminds me of what they call "Tinari/Binulang" in Waray-speaking areas of Eastern Visayas, Philippines. Though your scabbard and hilt look different.

Similar blades in the Philippines that have similar profiles to this are the modern Ginunting from Hiligaynon-speaking areas and the Sinampalok from Tagalog and Bicolano provinces. With that being said, I cannot really be certain that your blade is from the Philippines.

Edit: Image not actually mine, please take down my post if ever it's not allowed.

[RobT]

Thanks to All Who Responded,

Despite the blade on my sword resembling Philippine blades (ginunting, tinari/binulang, sinampalok), the hilt, ferrule, and sheath don't look at all like anything from the Philippines. As I pointed out in my first post, the fit of all the components to one another makes it clear that mine is not a composite piece. That being the case, the ferrule, which is so characteristic of Nepal must be considered the most important identifying characteristic.
When you think about it, outside of the big three (khukri, kora, tulwar), we know nothing about traditional weapons in Nepal and given the large number of ethnic groups in the country, it would seem likely that more than the aforementioned three are present. I think my sword is one of them.

Sincerely,
RobT

[Ian]

Rob,

I think you are correct. We know relatively little about less common swords from Nepal. You have argued persuasively that your example has a strong Nepalese flavor. Perhaps we can agree that, until someone comes up with another similar example with a clear provenance, we have a presumptive attribution to Nepal for your example at this time.

A while back I wrote about the hansia, a work knife of Nepal and northern India. It is another with a curved blade sharpened on the concave edge, but th curvature is much more pronounced than your example.

Ian.

[kronckew]

The hasyia is a Nepali sickle, ubiquitous to the farmer women for harvesting crops, it is carried on a rope baldric attached to a wooden carrier block & most of the blade is exposed, generally carried on the back. Certainly would not recommend anyone attacking a lady carrying one with anything less than a rifle from a distance.


The OP's blade could be a more shallow curved variant.


A fancy one for us westerners from a khukuri company, and a tool rack with three, a straight one, and another on it that looks rather similar 5to OP's, just all are rusty.

[David]

I think that with a piece like this we might not be able to make a pure ethnographic connection. We aren't considering this to be a particularly old weapon, are we? It has already been noted that the blade is made from a large rasp or file. In contemporary times blade smiths can get ideas and parts from all kinds of sources. I certainly see the similarity of the hilt and handle to the kukri. Does that necessarily mean the origin is Nepal? what is a smith just happened to have these parts lying about and decided to fit them into his next project. People build with the parts they have available to them, ergo the file as a blade.
The shape of the blade is indeed very much like a Filipino ginunting or tinari/binulang. And my first thought when i saw that tab of leather on the sheath was that same feature is often found on tengere sheaths like the one i posted below from Charles' collection. Of course, these traits don't identify this definitely a Filipino anymore than the ferrule identify it as Nepal. It seems a bit tricky to place the origin of a weapon on merely one feature like a ferrule. Since no one has ever seen anything else quite like this it is possible that this could have been a one-off project made by a smith from just about anywhere, using influences of other ethnographic weapons he has seen...or it could indeed be a less common swords from Nepal that no one here has ever seen before.