New Acquisition, Mandau, said to be 1800's

[milandro]

your Mandau appears to be old, whether that may also lead to the conclusion that it is an antique I don't know.

The VOC was disbanded in 1798. I think it is extremely unlikely that this Punched C belongs to a VOC designations, which are , to my knowledge, incisions made with a chisel.

[JoeCanada42]

When I rotate it and look closely The letter Resembles more
G.
and a few spaces ahead of it I see the remains of "S" or a number " 3?, 5?"

Perhaps the " G. " could be for Galle Ceylon

[milandro]

I suppose this blade could be certainly cleaned of its rust without necessarily detract from its age and show more of its markings. I doubt that there will be any positive ID from its origin even after that has happened (and something should be done to preserve the blade since there appears to be active rust on its surface)

Anyway the markings appear to be showing a western influence either in the steel or the forge. A piece entirely forged with Dayak material wouldn't have this kind of markings. The piece MAY be from the '20 but I doubt is as old as you have been told.

[JoeCanada42]

the G

perhaps, certainly its got a European touch. but why would a European put that there in the 20's? , I'm leaning more towards colonial trade markings

[milandro]

because earlier markings are not punched but chiseled and because of the lettertype used it looks , to me , something of the beginning od the 20th century

One can hypothesise any kind of thing but the reality is that without any safe and documented provenance they stay hypothesis

This, to my eye, is a pice made either with a piece of western steel or by a western smith which was repurposed to make this Mandau.

Even pieces made on Tjikeroeh (where lots of stuff was forged , in any sense of this verb.....) are showing the dates and other markings chiseled (as late as the '30)

[milandro]

another thing, this hilt appears to be antler not bone (human or otherwise)

[JoeCanada42]

fair enough but why put it there in the early 20c?

I don't know enough about the font type to say its definitely not older font

I do see the older VOC are carved but I don't think that its impossible either for someone to have stamps circa 1800,

for me this is not valid to rule out the possibility of it being older .

[JoeCanada42]

antler thanks, and thanks for the discourse so far,

I read for the best Dayak blades the purchaser would pay a native 10x the initial purchase cost to have the sword used for up to a year to test its quality, and that on these good native blades the beveled concave edge was sanded down by hand... it looks like that's what I got, not a forged or grinded down shape.
also the curve to the blade I was hoping is something the happened when tempered the old fashion way.

[JoeCanada42]

Originally Posted by milandro

A piece entirely forged with Dayak material wouldn't have this kind of markings. .

I wouldn't be to Shure about that.., maybe it was entirely forged by a Dayak, then acquired by a European or company, and had the identifying mark or initials put on after.