old style barung! Borneo?

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by Sajen

Hi Maurice,

I have no clue from where it is but I like it very much. Also when the outer tips of the pommel are broken is it just beautiful. Is it possible to fix the sleeve again?

Hi Detlef,

Yes indeed beautifull. But when the outer tips were recent break offs, I wouldn't be interested in it (I can be a very strange collector considering some features I especially don't want on an item in my collection, and recent breakoffs are one of them). But happily these were old breaks...

The horn sleeve has a very old crack (which is normal on horn, as we can often see on Atjeh klewangs). The crack is over the whole length of the horn, and just connected with one fiberpiece of horn (see attached image).
I leave it just as it is. It gives character to the barung.

The horn sleeve was very firm attached around the handle when I got it, and there wasn't any tolerance. Despite my precautions of taping and protecting the handle/pommel during etching, the sleeve was getting loose and there is tolerance now after the etching. I guess it was glued once which now came loose because of the heat.
But happily there are no gluerests I can see, and I am not wiggling a lot with the sleeve. I will put the barung away very soon to prevent the horn get damaged irreversible.

Maurice