PNG / Geelvinkbaai klewang ?

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by Maurice

Hi Willem,

At the commentation on those tools and weapons, I read that they didn't use metal. Only wood and bone.
Maurice

A little addition of my statements made before.
I was at the Leiden Museum today. There they said the same, but with that difference that there was a very little area in PNG were blacksmiths students were learning to make metal blades before the year 1900. When they graduated, they had to make a knife's blade.
There was an example displayed at the museum, but it was very poorly made, also with a very poor hilt (not he kind you depicted here).
I tried to remember the area but ??? Was it in the north west? (or was it the north south? )
My memory is not what it was before apparently!

by the way, the temporary exhibition "Sumatera tercinta" is much better than the permanent exhibition. Nice provenanced kerisses with a lot of gold, diamonds, ivory and gemstones, and a wonderfull balato and another nias dagger with ivory hilt. Also nice badeks with gold, gemstones, and so on, and so on....very interesting for the bling-bling lovers amongst us!