Gentlemen, I am convinced. It stays as-is. The most I will have done to it is a blade cleaning to remove any active rust. Perhaps a vinegar etch at a later time after I've had some more practice etching.
The shape and buddhist iconigraphy on the hilt are very interesting to me... can anyone tell which style the metal fittings come from? This may reveal to us where or whose hands this piece ended up in back in the day. Was buddhism ever practiced in mindanao or could this have been rehilted elsewhere? The "flower" on one of the fittings of the hilt reminds me vaguely of work I have seen on Ban swords of the Lepcha people of india. Were they buddhist? Could this have been a rehilt from the himalayas or region close to?
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I THINK ITS GOOD TO GO SLOW WHEN DECIDING TO RE-ARRANGE OR REPLACE THINGS ON A WEAPON.
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Agreed, Vandoo! This is partly why I was interested in posting this on the forum. Whether or not a "restoration" was necessary or ethical is something I was unsure about and wnated to defer to the members of this particular message board. Of course, we all will disagree on what may be best for a certain item and i can see the merit in both arguments, I think for now I will leave it as it is. Until we can at least fogure out which culture this interesting rehilt came from.
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Originally Posted by mross
I'm in favor of not messing with it. Here are some of my arguments;
1) From what the pics show the handle and wrap look well done.
2) There does appear to be some age to the rehilt, yes I know that can be faked
3) More importantly; the rehilit incorporated the ferrule and baca-baca. This means someone understood or at least wanted to preserve what was there. I lean toward someone knew what they were doing as these things have a habit of being removed and sold.
4) It's kinda a unique and someone went through some effort to do it that way which means it may have some history behind it.
All that said; nice piece! These are a favorite of mine, so I have fondness for them and like to see them preserved un-altered as much as possible.
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Reason 3 is something I had never thought of. I have had a few rehilted moro blades (one with a Javanese golok hilt, one with what looked like a Malay sundang hilt) and both of them had evidence of removed baca-baca.
Reason 4 is the main reason why I am hesitant to remove anything or change anything on this piece besides removing any active rust. Like I said beforehand: If only these blades could speak, I wonder what stories this old twistcore would have to tell us.
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Originally Posted by Spunjer
i'm with vandoo... i don't understand what's the deal with throwing away the handle. it's obvious that it's not a traditional handle, but the moros of your has been known to use non-traditional items on their weapon. added a couple of pictures that have i not known the provenance of this particular shield, i would definitely thought of it as a western addition. the bottle bottom bosed is a pre-1898 shield. it would be a pity if you throw the handle away and somehow come to find out, this was original to the sword.
nice twisty core, brah! can't wait to see after you clean the blade. hopefully etched to bring out all her splendid beauty!!!
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That, my friend is an interesting piece!
I'm leaning more towards this being procured somehow by someone of another culture and then rehiltd to suit that particularr person's needs as opposed to being a moro-done rehilt.
And about it being etched -- you and me both, brah. As polar opposite as some of us may feel about its current furniture (I myself am still conflicted but am still keeping it as-is), I'm sure all of us Kris fanatics like a good twistcore pattern.