New Gunong
 

Dear friends; I just found this gunong at a show here in Santa Barbara and would love to hear what everybody thinks. I am not an expert in Philippine arms, so I need your expertise!

Hello Montino,

nice gunong, would date it between 1920 and 1930, a little bit polish of the fittings and maybe an etch of the blade will show the real beauty of this piece.

Regards,
Detlef

nice one, plain & functional, deadly.

Hello Montino, Very nice little gunong you have there. I agree with Detlef's suggestion on cleaning this up a bit and and giving it an etch to bring out any pattern that might be hiding in the blade. One thing that seems funny to me though is that while the knife has brass fittings the scabbard looks to have ones made from silver. On all of the ones that I have had a chance to personally handle the hilt and scabbard fittings were made of the same material, brass with brass, silver with silver and on later ones aluminium with aluminium. Does the blade fit properly into the scabbard? From the more simple fittings of the knife's hilt I think that I would place it as being made from maybe between 1900 to 1930. I am wondering though if the scabbard might be a later replacement. I am also in total agree with Kronckew's assessment: plain, functional and deadly. My congratulations to you on a very nice addition to your collection.

Best,
Robert

So far agree with what has been said so far. Perhaps the scabbard and gunning were matched later. Robert is right that the scabbard mounts and hilt mounts usually match each other.