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I read some people patina brass with toilet bowl cleaner... Does your dog drink out of the toilet alot?
 
these buckler ones usually have a velvet covered 'pillow' pad tied at the corners between the 4 eyes under the grip cords to help protect the fingers from impacts to the front face. they are used to guard the sword hand which usually doesn't have much protection. hand protective shells/cages/baskets/bowl guards came later. aceh held on to them much later than most.
 
salt and vinegar does a good job on brass/bronze to remove oxidation and verdigris. ballistol seems to darken brass fittings.

too many ignorant owners of old weapons (and other antiques) think 'cleaning' and 'polishing' to make things shiny will enhance the value, when it actually can substantially reduce the value and can knock zeros off the end of the sale.
 
Was it on this thread or somewhere else someone asking about traditionally-made filipino blades? I just found such a source, will most likely get one. Post your email here and I'll FW you the link.
 
I believe I was one of the people asking about barongs. You can email me through the forum. I'd rather not post my email openly as spam bots have been known to troll emails out of forums.
 
That was quite intuitive. Email sent, let me know if you got it. They seem legit and decently priced, shipping price being included.

Didn't know about this forum facility.

Anyone else interested, let me know. 5160, hand-forged, forge scales visible, convex chisel grind, sourced from local smiths, nice prices - bolos & baromgs, NOT HI standard of beauty, just working specimens.

Some earlier mentions on Bladeforums and other ones. This is a recent discovery of mine, I intend to buy one - don't own one yet. I haven't contacted the guys yet, I go by what their website and others say.
 
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blue lander said:
I had no idea this was for the sword hand. The smaller size makes sense
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no, it's held in the left hand if you are right handed. the 'on guard' position keeps the buckler near the sword hand to enable you to protect it and your left side. (see post below)the sword and buckler move independently. earlier 'on guards' with a simple cross hilt and no buckler tended to favour keeping the sword hand back or high. remember liam neeson in kingdom of heaven near the beginning, and balial in the initial encounter with the arab horsemnan.- a high guard. (also see post below)fairly accurately portrayed. the modern fencing one hand forward, the other behind is only practical with the cup guards on foils and epees. or a buckler. the sword slowly evolved, first a ring on the crossguard so you could loop a finger over it w/o fear of it being cut off. then a ring both sides, soon a quillion was elongated and bent down 90 degrees to protect the hand, the basket hilts/morutuary hilts/schiavonas soon followed. the buckler was redundant, frequently replaced with a left hand dagger. the ultimate was the rapier.
Czech rapier.jpg
(my rapier)

as they evolved, they found that they didm not need quite so much protection when evryybody was carryin these, so the number of rings reduced until we had the small sword with a pure thrusting blade that only needed a small shell guard either side and a basic hand guard and quillion.

small-sword-large.jpg

this was the last sword commonly carried by civilians, such practice died out ealy in the 19th c., being replaced with pistols and knives.

military useage lasted longer but tended to maintain a more protective guard for infantry and cavalry, while naval swords came to look like this:

navy sword.jpg

d-guard, quillion, rudimentary asymmetrical shell mostly on the right side to protect the back of the hand, the left is cut back to cut down on it poking your side when carrying it.
(mine has a black real rayskin grip. the PX/exchange 'issue ones' are white plastic imitation rayskin, and have cheap fragile untempered stainless blades. mine is 1065 HC steel (and sharpened too)

p.s. - navy milspecs do not mention the color of the grips :), it is basically a thrusting blade.

the vavy still use a cutlass with a bowl guard based on an 1860's design, the later milsco model used in ww2 was not chosen. guess it was too tactical'
klewang marine.jpg
note he also carries a longer springfield sword bayonet for his M1, the issue one was a lot shorter.

klewang1.jpg
(mine -actually a dutch klewang cutlass that the milsco one copied failthfully)
 
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cont.

forward guard with buckler:
Capture 001.jpg

overhead guard w/o buckler hads to rear over head.
Capture 003.jpg Capture 002.jpg

note also knights in chain mail and plate armour generally wore armoured gauntlets to protect their hands...

aceh buckler grip & pad
Capture 005.jpg

related videos:
[video=youtube;CR8I6YthMsE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR8I6YthMsE[/video]

[video=youtube;SQGoiJKpGQI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQGoiJKpGQI[/video]
 
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Very informative pictures and videos. It's a bit different than how you see them use dhals in Indian martial arts videos on YouTube.

I tested out the modern Chinese made talibong I bought a few weeks back - it more or less behaves exactly like a long blade with lots of weight at the tip would be expected to. Great at chopping but the blade binds in thick dense wood. Great for chopping through branches and bushes though. The best thing about it is the big machete style grip. It's "American" sized some your hand fits comfortably even with thick leather working gloves.

The steel is surprisingly good. I had placed a piece of firewood on a rock and started battoning through it with the talibong. After a couple whacks the blade goes through the wood and into the rock, knocking a big chunk loose. It was a fairly soft stone, probably some sort of sand stone, but the edge of the blade was completely undamaged. It didn't even scratch the finish on the edge, you could still see the sharpening marks from when it was made.
 
blue lander said:
Very informative pictures and videos. It's a bit different than how you see them use dhals in Indian martial arts videos on YouTube.
...
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indian dhals and aceh shields are a bit bigger than bucklers and are worn across the forearm rather than in the centre. ghatka by the sikhs in the 'indian' videos is an artform. the indian tulwar used with the indian dhals has a wide pommel disk that forces you to hold the blade at roughly a 90 degree angle to your forearm to ensure you make close in draw cuts and makes it hard to do any thrusts. the style drives the use of the shield as well. aceh sikin swords are guardless like my traditional one below:

sikin003_DCE.jpg

a display of acehenese swords. the ones with the bowl guards are indian 'ferangi' swords (ferangi translates as 'foreign', another way to say 'european'.)

Capture 001.jpg

anyway, the actual use of the smaller buckler types would be different than the larger ones. eastern use is different than western.

the acehenese klewangs were a lot handier in the jungle than the dutch swords used by the dutch in their war with aceh in the late 19c early 20c.n the utch general designed a western klewang sword, had a few made in solingen, then a larger order from hembrug in the netherlands. milsco copied them exactly for theirs, and the japanese used cut down versions they captured from the dutch. thus we return to the cutlass referred to as the 1917 cutlass (mistakenly) by some i showed earlier with the marine and his long bayonet. mine is one of the ones made in solingen, these are referred to as dutch klewangs and are still used for ceremonial purposes.

Capture 002.jpg

mine again for ref.
klewang1.jpg


i have an L6 'villager' talibon from the phillipenes, made by jun silva. it's chisel ground & cuts like a light sabre. i wouldn't use it on hardwood, but it's ideal for lighter stuff and keeping the 2-legged wolves at bay. it's one of my favourites.

Talibon001_DCE.jpg
 
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I picked up a couple of WW2 bringback Philippino knives off e-bay. One a bowie knife, the other a bolo. The usual WW2 Philippino stuff you see on e-bay is souvenir quality at best, but these two look pretty well built. I particularly like the hilt on the bowie. They both appear to be sharpened on only one side like a traditional Philippino blade ought to be.
 
Thanks. I picked up a third knife from the same seller, couldn't resist as the hilt looked pretty nice. This one's a big boy. 19 inches OAL with a 13 in blade. The blade's engraved "Philippines" which is sorta tacky.
 
Moonw said:
Where can I sign up for unlimited funds :D, Lander?
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it's easy, just sell your other possessions, and your mother, father,wife and children - and maybe a few aunts and uncles and cousins. you can get a surprising amount for a child. i hear madonna is in the market again. i'm still trying to get adopted by a rich titled lady with a brewery and a castle. it's a work in progress hampered by being a very old child. i blame my parents for not coming from upper class parents. it's hard to get good ones nowadays, all the good ones are taken.
 
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