New Acquisition, Mandau, said to be 1800's

[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]

hmm I did research human bone vs animal bone and saw that human is more porous ( one side of mine looked "porous"), I neglected to research bone compared to antler, I will research it.
I was aware antler was more common for these including the older ones.

[werecow]

I recently saw a mandau with H.S. stamped into it in similar manner. All it said was early 20th century. Unfortunately I can't post pictures since it is still on sale.

[Sajen]

Hello Joe,

May I ask if the blade has a concave/convex profile?

Regards,
Detlef