Bought a kind of cool machete thing

S

Screamingweasle

Joined
Jul 11, 2016
Messages
7
Hi guys. First post here but I've been lurking for a while. Anyhow wandering the army surplus store today and ran into this thing. I'm not nearly as educated on blades as most of you, but I figured for 20 bucks why not. The handle looks like it may not be original to the blade, and is in any case not done well. It looked almost as if someone were halfway done shaping it. It's made of some light, extremely porous wood. After getting it home I cleaned it up to the point of being usable, but if I decide I like the blade, it will need to be redone.

The blade is what interested me. I like the size and shape. It looks forged to me, took a razor edge quite easily. The blade is 16.25 inches, 21 inches over all, with the three little... Flowers? Stamped near the handle. Blade is 1/8 thick.

I have no idea what this thing is. Probably just a tourist blade from somewhere. But as of now I like it, and if it holds up to my next swamp excursion I may be looking for someone to put a nice handle on it.

If anyone knows anything about what this thing is, please chime in!



 
I don't know it's exact name but to my eyes it looks like the real deal. The tourist stuff seems to usually have more polish to it. Looks like a very efficient design. Give it a little workout and see how it cuts.
 
The Army surplus store is a treasure trove, I can only imagine who made that thing and what jungle it carved a path through... Nice find.
 
Southern Philippines/Indonesia/Malaysia

I love my SE Asian Island knives, they see real work.

Bill
 
Thanks guys. The handle isn't bamboo, it has growth rings in it. I assume the wood is from a small tree as the center of the rings is nearly in the center of the handle on the back.

I haven't used it heavily yet but did chop down a few forearm sized chinaball trees with it. No problems there!
 
Also, any suggestions for who to contact to have a nice handle built as well as a good (not fancy, this thing will be worked) sheath?

Any ideas how much this kind of work would cost?
 
It's a Barong. Handle looks a bit like Indonesian shaped, rather than the highly hooked Filipino ones.

Here's a training Barong with a W-1 blade. (Wooden one :))

5352999_orig.jpg
 
It looks like a tool made by a village blacksmith, made for someone who really uses the tool for work.:confused:
 
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