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Forgive my ignorance but how to you keep the hilt on without some sort of adhesive. You mention it's made to come off and swapped out etc. I'm not seeing how that's accomplished.
 
I think the tang is wrapped in fabric or something and then stuck into the hole in hilt. Only friction holds it in, and you can remove it by just pulling on it.

These things aren't really practical weapons, its more of a magical talisman or costume piece. In a pinch you could use it to stab someone, but the little stick tang might snap or fall out.

The tang on this one is pretty thick. And it was glued in with resin. The blade itself is pretty thick and actually has a good temper
you can bend it a bit and it returns to straight. The balance is forward so you probably could hurt someone if you swung it at them.

http://www.museumneka.com/keris.asp

http://www.indo.com/featured_article/keris.html

http://www.indomagic.com/articles/keris/

http://iweb.tntech.edu/cventura/kris.htm

http://articles.latimes.com/1987-05-24/news/mn-2314_1_kris-sword
 
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mine is spiral wrapped in a couple layers of fairly thin material, i think it is silk. it's an off cut from something, cut into a narrowish strip about a half inch wide. as noted by blue lander, it's only held on by friction. you could thrust with it, but it's not a cutting weapon. if it got stuck in someone, the handle may come off as you pull on it ;) there's info/pics on the 'other place' showing how they are normally held, with your thumb and extended fore-finger pinching the rear part of the blade, the thrust is then just like poking someone with your finger. if it sticks you may need to grab the wide part to pull it out - as tyhey tend to have spikey bits & notches (mine doesn't), you may need a glove or to wrap in in something to aid the hold.

many of the older magical blades that have been washed a good number of times (in lime juice & arsenic) are eroded and fairly fragile and definitely not weapons if they ever were. anyway, we here tend to have better knives for defence. these are mostly eye-candy. i'e read of some that have indeed had the tang snap off due to age, requiring a repair. the ganga - the separate piece at the base of the blade that is a sort of guard is actually not welded or glued on, it's just a tight fit. it would be removed and a new tang scarfed and hammer welded to the base of the blade & the ganga refitted. the weld is usually fairly obvious - i'm sure there is a term the purists use for that :).

the moro versions are more substantial & have square tangs that are cemented in and the handles are normally also held tight on the blade by a metal strip (or two) that wraps over the blade and extends down into the handle area where the grip wrap holds it in place.

moro kris grip:
Capture 001.jpg

the moro kris and the indonesian/malaysian keris have the same roots. the filipino/moro ones are just larger & designed for slashing as well as thrusting, and definitely weapons. the malays have a large keris that is the ancestor of the filipino one that is also designed for slashing draw cuts. the malays also tended not to wash their keris in arsenic like the indonesians, but left them bright.
 
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The Moro Kris is an incredible weapon. The core of the blade is made from twisted bars of iron and the cutting edges are hardened steel. Supposedly they're they equal of wootz or Toledo steel.

As awesome as the Moro Kris is, I think thing the barong is the scarier weapon.
 
i agree, i've read about a jurementado (moro berserker) that attacked a US marine with a barong & cut him in half at the waist. if i recall, the moro had 6 .38 slugs in him but it didn't slow him down right away tho he died a few seconds too late. one of the reasons the US forces there sent home for their trusty .45lc SAA colts & later resulted in the 1911 colt .45 acp. the peqacetime bean counters at the army procurement office had decided a 9mm/.355 (.38 cal) was good enough, cheaper and they could carry more ammo. i seem to recall hearing that more recently too. also hear the troops in the sandpit also sent home for their 1911 .45 acp's to replace the 9mm berettas that procurement 'specialists' (aka bean counters) had convinced the army were good enough. will we ever learn?

this 18in. blade barong razor belong fella me. it's 5160/D2 blended steel.
barong 001.jpg
 
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I read any untrained fool with a barong could cut a man's head or arm or leg off in a single swing, but only a man with good technique could cut someone clean in half at the waist.

Supposedly with good technique you could cut a man from his left collar bone to his right hip bone.
 
blue lander said:
I read any untrained fool with a barong could cut a man's head or arm or leg off in a single swing, but only a man with good technique could cut someone clean in half at the waist.

Supposedly with good technique you could cut a man from his left collar bone to his right hip bone.
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Interesting. Makes me wonder how my Blackhawk Tatang will perform after it arrives tomorrow. I'm told that for a mass-produced commercial blade it cuts surprisingly well. Ought to be interesting. Also ought to be the kind of knife over which I won't shed tears should it get lost because I can always get a replacement.
 
Wow, that tatang is pretty neat. It's like a baby barong!

I started rubbing down the hilt of the keris with alcohol. The paint's coming off slowly but surely. The wood underneath looks very plain and uninteresting so far...
 
I'm told that it was not strange for older barongs to have as short as an eight inch blade. More modernly the barong typically has an 18 inch or longer blade. I'm anxious to receive it tomorrow along with a CRKT Heiho. It seems like ever since I started carrying folders I lose or destroy one per year. I came out of Brasil with a knockoff S&W M&P knife that is a write-off because the screws love to pop out, last year I lost a Benchmade Mini-Griptilian, and I recently lost my Kershaw-Emerson CQC-7. I was going to replace that one with something nice-ish, until I realized that folders only seem to last a year with me. I've yet to lose a fixed blade of course.
 
I bought a Blackhawk tatang a while ago. It was an impulse buy because I liked the looks and saw a promotional video.

Frankly, I was disappointed. Although it probably compares favorably with most mass-produced commercial blades, as Scara says, it didn't have the kind of "character" that I see in handmade Nepalese or Filipino blades. Just seemed to have been stamped out of a sheet of steel by some giant machine, and then had edges ground onto it. I put it away and forgot about it until this thread reminded me.

I doubt very much that it could compete with a traditional barong of any size. As for cutting power, my impression is that it could cleave a man all the way from one side of his left collar bone to the other side of his left collar bone. If that's what you want to do, you can pick up a good kitchen cleaver.

I've seen some barong cutting demonstrations. The blades tend to be relatively wide and thin. That means if you cut with good technique it would have enormous penetrating power against a human opponent. However, if you make a sloppy cut the blade will tend to flex or enter the body at a sideways angle, greatly reducing penetration. That's consistent with blue lander's comment about the importance of good technique.
 
davidf99 said:
I bought a Blackhawk tatang a while ago. It was an impulse buy because I liked the looks and saw a promotional video.

Frankly, I was disappointed. Although it probably compares favorably with most mass-produced commercial blades, as Scara says, it didn't have the kind of "character" that I see in handmade Nepalese or Filipino blades. Just seemed to have been stamped out of a sheet of steel by some giant machine, and then had edges ground onto it. I put it away and forgot about it until this thread reminded me.

I doubt very much that it could compete with a traditional barong of any size. As for cutting power, my impression is that it could cleave a man all the way from one side of his left collar bone to the other side of his left collar bone. If that's what you want to do, you can pick up a good kitchen cleaver.

I've seen some barong cutting demonstrations. The blades tend to be relatively wide and thin. That means if you cut with good technique it would have enormous penetrating power against a human opponent. However, if you make a sloppy cut the blade will tend to flex or enter the body at a sideways angle, greatly reducing penetration. That's consistent with blue lander's comment about the importance of good technique.
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This was an impulse buy for me as well, since I'd heard it was good for a commercial blade. I don't really expect it to be better than something handmade by someone who knows what they're doing, but for what I paid I won't complain as long as it cuts as well as I'm told. It does make me kind of want to get a barong by JW Bensinger in a similar size just as a comparison. I expect the Blackhawk would cut well, and the Bensinger would cut scarily well.

Your comment about the blade being wide and thin reminds me of another well known leaf-shaped blade. I'm told the Smatchet as originally designed had a very broad and thin blade. Modern copies tend to have a thicker blade, and apparently just don't cut as well. Dang, every time I think about the Smatchet I want one. What is it with me and less conventional blades? My favorite knife bar none is the kukri, I've become quite taken with karambits, I've designed two variations on the Suga, I really want a Smatchet and a Fairbairn Cobra...

The comment also makes me remember that I need to find a good way of getting cutting practice so I can practice proper technique.
 
Scara said:
....The comment also makes me remember that I need to find a good way of getting cutting practice so I can practice proper technique.
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Reminds me again of the movie "Gangs of New York": The scene where Bill the Butcher teaches his young apprentice by stabbing a blade into a hanging pig carcass. "This is a kill ..... this is a kill .... this is a wound .... this is a slow kill; let him think about it for a while ...." etc.

Unfortunately, with the price of pork these days (not to mention the problem of refrigeration) a pig carcass would be a costly way to get cutting practice. And it might make your neighbors nervous, to put it mildly.
 
davidf99 said:
Reminds me again of the movie "Gangs of New York": The scene where Bill the Butcher teaches his young apprentice by stabbing a blade into a hanging pig carcass. "This is a kill ..... this is a kill .... this is a wound .... this is a slow kill; let him think about it for a while ...." etc.

Unfortunately, with the price of pork these days (not to mention the problem of refrigeration) a pig carcass would be a costly way to get cutting practice. And it might make your neighbors nervous, to put it mildly.
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Though given my reputation among my friends I'm not sure any of them would be overly surprised or discomfited if I did go that route. My neighbors might, but my friends wouldn't. Come to think of it, someone told me a few weeks ago that you can buy bulk cardboard shipping tubes from ULine, and I know there are plenty of people who use those for practice.
 
Truly Scara, Technique is important even with the moderate blades but as has been mentioned most old traditional blades are thinner and the technique is MUCH more important. I love the idea of the Blackhawk tatang...A decent mass produced blade that isn't going to make you break down in tears if you forget it somewhere. And for the "unique" shaped blades well, anyone that loves Khuks like us HI Fan-atics has some sort of predisposition towards less than conventional.

Can't wait Blue to see what kind of gem you get out of that rough, it looks like it might have some very nice pieces involved here and there :D
 
I think it's going to turn out pretty nice! I've cleaned most of the paint off the scabbard with rubbing alcohol.
 
Oh Heck yeah! That looks good! Looks like they missed the scabbard one time or another trying to resheath. Hope it didnt go into someones leg or other parts:eek:
 
Apparently, according to the "other site", that oval inlay is a repair, perhaps from bug damage. So somebody drilled out an oval shaped area on the scabbard, glued a piece of wood into it, then filed it down to the same 3D shape of the scabbard. I need to take a picture from an angle because it required a LOT of work to match the repair to the rest of the scabbard.

Then, after all was said and done, they decided the repair was too ugly so they dunked the whole sheath in thick brown paint to cover it up.
 
So the Blackhawk Tatang has arrived. I'm fairly impressed with the knife, and not impressed with the sheath. The sheath is poor to say the least. The knife however cuts very well, once you remember that it's not a kukri. The kukri has gotten me in the habit of doing chops out towards the end of the blade because that's where the sweet spot is. With the barong you have to remember to cut instead of chopping, and to start at the hilt and not out towards the tip. Once that's remembered it cuts into soft materials really well. I of course used the box as a target. One of my cuts started with the floppy part that was part of the closure/lid/whatever you call those parts of a typical box where you fold it over. It started there, and went through eleven inches of cardboard until it reached the end of the part that was perpendicular to the blade and cut through four inches of cardboard at the end that was more or less parallel to the blade on it's way out. It did that while moving the box only a little. I was especially impressed because in my experience floppy parts like that don't cut as well. Not in this case.

A word to the wise, the jimping on this one is pretty aggressive. I would recommend keeping your thumb off of it if you're going to be doing any strong cuts. It stings a lot when you do. So I'd just keep the thumb a little further back for strong cuts. However if you're using the knife for more delicate tasks that jimping will help you keep a secure grip on it.

Oh and the sheath doesn't come with a Tek-Lok, I just put one on for a few minutes. It actually comes with these two pieces of plastic and some other stuff that I assume is supposed to turn them into belt loops, though I'm not sure any of the various holes are properly spaced for that.



 
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