Kampilan Question

[kai]

Hello Queequeg,

Welcome to the forum!

Are the "clip-point" or the spike sharpened, too?

No, usually not. As Rick points out, the tip of the blade (wether with spike or not) is often/usually? thin enough to be used in a ripping "backward" motion.

Is the spike decorative, or does it give some tactical advantage?

I'd venture to guess that any tactical advantage isn't that big: A lot of Kampilans were used without a spike - some had there spikes broken off long ago and many kampilan blades never had a spike to begin with. Heck, with a blade of this size, even a passing hit with an unsharped "edge" hurts!

I've heard respected Filipinos explaining that the spike can be used to distract an opponent (i.e. asking for an opening) but none of those I remember were Moro themselves. It would be nice if someone well versed in a Moro MA style were to confirm this.

Also, what initially confused me about which side was sharp was the direction of the handle. Most kampilan seem to have the "jaws" of the handle flared toward the sharp edge, which makes sense to me ergonomically. Yours has the jaws facing the spine, which seems (no offense) backward to me.

Nah, the flaring part of the hilt is at the top (like in Bill's example) - it's not a grip retention aid like in a kakatua pommel. I think I remember seeing a few genuine kampilan blades with hilts turned around but I'd strongly suspect these were trophies of foreign soldiers which got dabbled with...

OTOH, I've often seen kampilans mounted on a wall with the edge upside down. This always striked me as weird - maybe the sharp edge kept cutting any attachment string?

Regards,
Kai