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Old 11th September 2020, 06:50 AM   #2
Ian
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: The Aussie Bush
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Hi Xas,

Good blade on your kris, with what looks like silver inlay that is complete. Very nice. The hilt, however, does not really befit the blade IMHO.

As for the hilt, I believe the pommel is based on a minimalist interpretation of a kakatua. I have a couple of similar examples on various blades (a barung and an unidentified work knife come to mind), and have thought that these were simply rustic versions of the more elaborately carved forms. The small iron(?) ferrule seems somewhat anomalous and the grip has no other treatment (no wrap, etc.), which suggests that the hilt is either not Moro or perhaps its Moro owner had fallen on hard times and needed to economize. I don't know which non-Moro group might have made this plain type of hilt, so I think it is probably an unusual (and parsimonious) Moro variant.

Despite the quality of the blade, this one looks to be more of a "user" than for display. It has a practical look about it.

Ian
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