Thanks for the visual reference, rick!
The pira came in yesterday. Will take pics when I have time, but quickly came to post a few notes:
- The blade is tapered. at the base it is 6.5mm thick, and tapers to less than 2mm thick near the tip. Seems a tad slim for a non-modern/old moro piece, but my frame of reference is mainly from Kris. Is this common for Pira of this shape? I have another pira of the "newer' blade shape that is thicker. Would thickness be any indication of age or quality? It definitely feels good in-hand and is not whippy. Very solid.
- Length of the blade is a whopping 20 inches (51cm)
- Upon closer inspection, the blade seems to be laminated in a low contrast pattern, as kai predicted. I was thinking about doing a light citric etch as someone seems to have polished it almost to a shine at one point.
- As Kai also said, it turns out the patina on the handle is shiny rather than there being some type of laquer on it.
- Length of the handle is 6.5 inches (16.5 cm) but was probably longer orginally due to the broken crest
- The patina at the butt end of the hilt is lighter and does seem to me to indicate that the crest was broken off and then smoothed out at one point. I will post pictures of this.
- There are filings at the base of the spine that we see in many philippine/moro blades. The familiar ||X| pattern is filed in.
- there are scratch marks on the wood from the shaping of the handle. This and the next bit are why I believe this to belong to someone who was not necessarily of status.
- The brass punto (metal hilt collar/sleeve) is significantly less wide than the handle it is on. Is this indicative of any particular group's style of assembly? I know that the Pira have been attributed to the Yakan and Samal, but what are the differences between piras made by each group? This Punto style seems new to me, as most of the ones I see on other pira are silver and have the look similar to most Barung (i.e. longer slength in the punto, lined up well at the base with the wooden hilt, tapering out in 'rings' once it gets closer to the blade). Then again, it could be because of its owner. It does not seem to me like a status piece.