Albino horn hilted pira

[Ian]

Guys,

I think that you maybe misunderstood why I posted this one. I put it here to indicate that older style pira blades were made from reasonably modern materials post-1900.

I purchased this one in Manila in 1997. The dealer who sold it to me is about my age and someone I came to know very well. This pira was one of the early items I bought from him and I wrote down some of the information he gave me about this sword. He told me that Maranao craftsmen had been making pira in the older style since about the 1920s. Whether they were made for Yakan consumption or for those who traveled was unclear. He told me that at first the Maranao blades had the small "ricasso" (he called it something else, but that was 30 years ago and I did not make a note of the name) for only a short time (maybe 10 years) and that feature was then dropped.

The hilt, he said, was a "prestige" hilt made from albino horn (which it is) and decorated in brass "for someone important." This could have been a sales pitch, of course.

Based on this information, I think the likely date of manufacture was in the 1920s or 1930s.

To address some of the points you raised. "Monosteel" is a term that needs defining. My working definition is a steel of uniform chemical composition. That does not necessarily mean steel from a single billet. It could be steel from several sources, but of the same composition. It does not exclude that the steel has been folded or layered during forging (i.e., laminated) or differentially hardened. Depending on the skills of the smith, laminated "monosteel" may show no evidence of lamination to the naked eye when etched.

There are examples of Moro weapons made from "monosteel" dating from the 19th C, and increasingly into the 20th C. I recently sold a 19th C barung with a Chinese-made blade that had no evidence of lamination and was likely a "monosteel" blade. A "monosteel" Moro blade can have significant age, and such a blade could have been made from materials fairly readily available in the 1920s.

As far as the 3-D aspect of the hilt, I will post more pictures in the next day or so when the winter rains stop and the overcast skies clear.

[David]

Originally Posted by Ian

To address some of the points you raised. "Monosteel" is a term that needs defining. My working definition is a steel of uniform chemical composition. That does not necessarily mean steel from a single billet. It could be steel from several sources, but of the same composition. It does not exclude that the steel has been folded or layered during forging (i.e., laminated) or differentially hardened. Depending on the skills of the smith, laminated "monosteel" may show no evidence of lamination to the naked eye when etched.

There are examples of Moro weapons made from "monosteel" dating from the 19th C, and increasingly into the 20th C. I recently sold a 19th C barung with a Chinese-made blade that had no evidence of lamination and was likely a "monosteel" blade. A "monosteel" Moro blade can have significant age, and such a blade could have been made from materials fairly readily available in the 1920s.

There is no doubt that mono steel blades have been made for some time and i am sure there are quite a few examples of late 19th and early 20th century Moro blades out there. However, my understanding of mono steel is that it is indeed a single layer of steel that is not folded or layered.