Hello Joe,
I can't read the metal due to the rust and partial cleaning - I agree that at least a gentle, even cleaning with fine steel wool and lots of elbow grease will be preferable.
As mentioned, this certainly isn't a VOC blade: Those were European blades, never local styles. (And you can't get a broad cleaver out of a slender sword/sabre.) Anyway, this font will never fly as VOC. Moreover, lots of Indo blades received false VOC marks - much like many European marks got copied by the competition!
I also doubt this blade is as old as claimed: Especially the base of the blade is not typical and also the tip seems a bit odd, even for a possibly worn blade. While some later blades have European letters on them, this certainly is not a traditional feature. Some earlier blades also got crafted from imported steel and blanks that didn't got fully reforged by the bladesmiths may show remnants of European lettering; in this case the lettering is crisp and seems to be aligned well with the back of the blade which is pointing towards very limited changes in shape.
The English (Wilkinson?) did supply blades in local styles. Not sure about mandau though - this might be worth following up on!
The scabbard isn't terribly old either (the rattan bands seem to show some age though).
All in all and based on the currently available pics, I'd guess this might well originate from the 2nd half of 20th c.
Regards,
Kai
|