Hi Don,
Sorry for the late response. Just got back from my parent's place (my daughter's birthday today, yipee!).
Anyway, I got to handle that Barong (not sure if they actually called it "barong" as barong is a kind of cloth we have here), and according to my dad, that small sword is actually a personal sword carried by the Moros to compliment their main sword, which is the Kris. Hmm... I guess you can compare this to the Wakizashi sword of the Japanese, which is also carried side by side with a Katana, their longer sword.
This Barong we have here (some call them Gulok, I think) actually came from one of Mindanao's most famous bandit, named Maklon (Titan, since you're in the Davao area, perhaps you can verify if such a guy existed) who was pretty well-endowed with beheading his enemies and stabbing them. (yuck...)
My dad was still cursing a bit when he was telling me all these, because apparently, someone stole the mother of pearl which used to be on the tip of that scabbard, aside from the capiz shells that adorn the rest of the scabbard (like on your pic). Apparently, the guy who did it, couldn't remove it in the normal way, so it was "broken" away, the tip of the scabbard is missing. ARGH! Does your sword handle have some sort of abaca fiber wrapping? Ours did, and some gold and brass inlays as well.
Since it had no hand-guard (or tsuba in the japanese sword), my dad had to put an old peso coin (circa 1972) since he was cut quite a number of times when his hands slipped forward while cutting something.. hehe... The original one didn't even have any hand-guard.
Yep, it looked a bit silly, but it apparently does the job pretty well of protecting your hand against slipping towards that razor sharp blade.
Now, for the steel itself. This steel is apparently made out of spring steel. And nope, it's not made from steel taken from railroads either. He showed me the difference when he brought out one of those heavy-duty locally-made choppers that came from our restaurant before. Those were made from steel taken from abandoned railroads.
The sound itself when you strike it is different, reminds me of the sound when steel meets steel during a swordfight.
What's funny about the steel from this Barong, is that it holds an edge like forever. Even with rust settling in, I ran my thumb across the edge, tried shaving hair (I know, it's a no-no to keep a hair-popping edge on a sword), chopped some stuffs like wood, cardboard boxes, sliced some leather, even chopped some discarded bones from our would-be dinner that night, hehe.. and the edge didn't even budge. It didn't even chip where the edge struck bone a couple of times.
Can you say Trailmaster eat your heart out? lol!!!
Hmmm.. remember what I told you about that guy Maklon being infamous for his rampant beheading and stabbing of his enemies? (very typical of the rebel group here called MNLF).
Well, this small sword is all rusty and everything, and knowing my dad who keeps his swords and knives really clean, he told me that this is only one of the two swords he can't get rid of the rust permanently. The other is the WWII japanese sword which is in my possession.
Take note, this steel does not "rust" as in the regular brownish rust you normally see. It rusts BLACK (due to the blood I think). And it takes on this "fishy" kind of smell not even oiling it would get rid of that smell (foul actually, smells like death). Same problem I have with my katana, as it was also one of those swords that tasted human flesh more than a couple of times already. ughh..
This weekend, I told my dad that I will try to clean it and see if Tuf-Glide or Marine Tuf-Cloth can do something about it. Of course I'll have to get down and dirty, and use different grits of sandpaper to rid of that black rust first. These are the times when I wish I still had my digital camera.
There are lots of copies of this sword locally in the Mindanao Area. I think Titan can tell us more as he's located there right now (probably beheading chickens, heheheh).
If that one is in mint condition, it should have a good value. My dad had this since he was still single, and he's now 65 yrs. old.
Just don't ask me to test and see if it can still behead someone, hahahahaha..
Anything else you want to know about this sword?
Dan
