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the curvy one with the upturned scabbard toe is not 'persian' appears to be a koummiyah or koummya dagger ( a style of arab jambiyah) from north west africa, mostly in morocco & some parts of algeria. they have a very distinctive grip and scabbard design that, while they are all different, have the same basic curled toe all metal scabbard, side mounts for baldric rings, a bolster that overlaps the scabbard, a wood or rhino horn grip with a bowed metal pommel - some have an all metal grip. most modern ones have thin blades with little care for the blade & are for show. older blades were 4mm or thicker and many had fullers.

it is normally double edged with the main edge on the inside of the curve and a shorter sometimes false edge on the outside & used point down. they do make some styles in single edge, or straight ones called genoui (ie. genouese - a style admired that is from genoa, italy).

the other is a filipino horses hoof bolo/sword (luzon/mindanao used the hoof style grips) and a nice one at that. scabbard looks fairly crisply carved, may be new. ww2 GI bring-back? i'd be proud to own that one.
 
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Looks like the kouyymia is missing the metal part that should be on the end of the pommel. Still looks really nice though! The Filipino bolo looks well made too.
 
The Koummiyah has the outward edge sharpened and gets quite sharp (I can get it shaving sharp with the Fine Sharpmakes stones), but no double edge.

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And the tip is definitely fragile! It gets to a very thin point. More or less like the CS Vaquero folder, I don't think it can take any abuse at all.

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Thank you for the info!
 
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Bought me another Barong. It's not any nicer than my other one but it was about $60 shipped and I couldn't pass it up at that price. It was a WWII bring back from a sailor. He was apparently told the blade was made from a downed Japanese plane, which I seriously doubt. I hope it's made from folded steel rather than scrap metal, even if that scrap metal came from a Japanese fighter plane. Blade length is 13.5 inches.
 
That's super nice Blue. It and it's sheath look a lot like mine. My tip is a little more centered, drops from top and edge more to the middle.
Is your sheath intact and solid?
Mine was kind of split, all there and works just split at the seam.

I had to put a handle on mine as it was just the blade and sheath when I got it. I should have studied a bit more before I made the handle but it's comfy and works good for me.
 
Hasn't arrived yet, but it appears to be two pieces of wood glued together. Traditionally they should be bound together with rattan. Maybe it used to be bound with rattan and then was later glued, but usually you can see some evidence of that in the sheath, some discoloration where the rattan once was. I don't see any evidence of that in mine, which makes sense if it was made in the 40s. I think it's newer than my other one.

Have you used yours for any brush work Bawanna ?
 
No I've not used it but it sure seems like it would work well for brush work.

Mine has a tiny hardly noticeable crack up front on the edge. It's cool enough that I don't really want to risk damaging it.

I'm tempted to rehandle it again with a more proper handle but doubt I'll ever do it. It's ok as is and it would probably be a major chore to get the present handle off again.
 
Cool find Blue, Great looking, It will be interesting once you get it to see how it compares to your thoughts about it from the pictures.

Funny but in the pic of the blade next to the sheath they don't look like they go together. I am sure they do, just the upsweep to the sheath makes the blade look too wide to really fit properly. Once you get it lined up I am sure it is fine, but the look just seems stranger than most to me.
 
I noticed the same thing. Like half the bolster would have to go into the scabbard for it to fit.

It's possible the seller had a bunch of mismatched Barong parts laying around that they threw together for GIs.
 
Ahhh, The simple answer once again proves most probable. Hadn't thought of that but very likely. As I say, it is always interesting to hear how your opinion of a new acquisition compares to what you see in the photos once you get it in hand. I eagerly await the update :)
 
Nice Barong blue! Looks pretty normal to me. It appears like there is a pearl inlay at the top of the sheath. Mine has split wooden halves too. At some time someone put a few spots of glue on the halves to stick them together since the wicker is missing. Someone may have cleaned of any trace of the cordage on yours at one time but most Ive seen do have it. The steel looks normal as well. Hard to tell till you get it tho. That was a steel for $60. I paid almost $300 for mine.
 
That is a nice barong. Kronck would be the one to tell you-but the sheath looks WW2ey-the sword looks older (granted I'm looking at a 2"x4" screen lol). That might well be laminated-I've only seen one that wasn't.
 
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It just arrived. It's a bitty thing compared to my other Barong! The blade is probably about 15 inches long and maybe 1/8th of an inch thick at the hilt. Nice distal taper though. More of a big knife instead of a small sword. Even so it's sturdily built. Makes sense they'd make them smaller by that time since they were no longer a primary weapon. Looks like the tip of the scabbard is missing.
 
What part is picture #3 of? I don't see it on the full knife picture and can't tell what the heck I'm looking at.

The tips usually had a forward ornamental piece and quite frequently they are broken off, similar to the top end.

Over all that's a pretty sweet barong at least to my untrained unqualified eye.
 
Bawanna, pic 3 is the blade right near the handle, same side as pic 1. You can see the beginning of the tang, and also that C shaped patina mark lines up. I don't know too much about vintage blades, but it looks like a darn cool knife to me.
 
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It just arrived. It's a bitty thing compared to my other Barong! The blade is probably about 15 inches long and maybe 1/8th of an inch thick at the hilt. Nice distal taper though. More of a big knife instead of a small sword. Even so it's sturdily built. Makes sense they'd make them smaller by that time since they were no longer a primary weapon. Looks like the tip of the scabbard is missing.
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Actually a lot of the Span-Am war barongs were little-it's the later ones that are often huge.
The Juramentados that were te reason the army was frantically shipping mothballed Colt SAA's to the P.I. were generally using small (8-14") barongs-concealable, maneuverable and still very powerful.
This is a (near) copy of a juramentado size barong-this has taken off a couple deer heads and one 320lb pig noggin (all postmortem butchering)
 
12-18 in bladed barongs are normal. early moro kris swords were also smaller.

i've read stories about US soldiers being cut in half at the waist by a barong wielding jurimentado on drugs who was shot 6 times with the soldiers 6-shot .38 revolver. one reason the army went to a .45acp pistol. sadly the bean counters have forgotten and went for the M9 (now M9A3). 28% of m9 carriers, likely the ones that have actually used them in anger, are displeased with the 9mm ball ammo. the A3 version thus has a 17 round mag, so you can shoot a talibunny 2 more times before he cuts you in half. i'm surprised the military bean counters didn't go whole hog and go for a .22 short because you can carry a lot more rounds than that massive 9mm round. (i've heard that the army is issuing 9mm carbines to ranks below colonel because they have a bit more stopping power. too stubborn to go back to the .45acp that we all know and love)

anyhow, got this one on order from bulgaria. been accumulating a few axes recently. axes are cheap, cheaper than swords, so i get more bang for my buck. this was about $30 including postage. bet this one would stop that talibunny (or moro jurimentado. mad jack churchill (ww2) had the right idea, he said no officer should go into battle without a sword. he then proved it by capturing 100 +/- germans solely with his - after shooting a german sentry with his longbow.(i'd amend that to add a nice axe - in addition to your m43 khukuri of course)

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That's a fine looking axe. I find myself looking at them a lot too. Kind of a different looking head on that one.

Quite appealing.
 
Gotta agree with Bawanna Kron, That is a fine looking axe with a slightly different head shape. As for axes and "modern" soldiers. Lets just say that every war we wind up trying to recreate the wheel because we THINK technology has us past needing things like tomahawks and swords. So we always find in theater made versions doing brisk business until the manufacturers can get up to speed and issue the things the troops actually need. The Vietnamese war tomahawks are great examples of that.
 
Is the 1911 story really true or more of a legend?

I'm under he impression regular infantry only get a rifle a bayonet and only the officers got pistols?
 
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