![]() |
![]() |
#1 |
Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Greenville, NC
Posts: 1,855
|
![]()
Here is a parang kerekoepang from Banjarmasin, Borneo recently purchased from Ebay, and now restored to more of what it would have originally looked like. It has some very unique features, even strange to me. Note one side of the blade has a shallow fuller and turns inward sharply at the blade's edge. The opposite side of the blade of the blade is practically FLAT, with no fuller and the edge turning just slightly inward.
The blade is quite heavy and thick. It is hard for me to believe that the all wood hilt of this sword could have handled such a blade for long, indeed, you can already see an old stress crack. It seems to me that it would not take much of a blow, even for this slasher, to break the heavy blade from the hilt. Note there is no bolster, rattan or wire wrap, or anything else to strengthen the hilt. It's a lovely sword to look at, quite elegant, but I wonder about its "engineering". Restoration only involved cleaning the blade a little and replacing some of the many cord bindings. Dimensions: 24in. overall length 18in. blade length 1.5in. widest point of the blade |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#2 |
Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Germany, Dortmund
Posts: 8,712
|
![]()
Hello Charles,
it's a very nice example and when I don't would have bought the kanta shield just before we would have had a fight about this one! ![]() ![]() I've sold my example some time ago (http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ht=banjarmasin) which was maybe a great mistake. ![]() Congrats for getting this very nice example! Regards, Detlef |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#3 | |
Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 422
|
![]() Quote:
A short blade puts much less stress on the hilt than a long blade. I think length matters more than the weight. I have seen longer blades in bolster-less hilts; I've used a longer blade in a bolster-less hilt (horn, rather than wood) to fell trees (RIP faithful golok; the blade failed while the hilt kept going - hit something very hard and took a big chip out of the blade). Yes, the hilt could easily be made stronger. But strong enough is strong enough. Traditional hilts are often built in ways that collectors of modern swords would regard with horror as absolutely inadequate. But history shows that the traditional way is good enough. How heavy is it? |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
|