Text on rencong

[TVV]

Originally Posted by Alam Shah

TVV,
The Arabic text on your rencong, looks like "Allahu Akbar" literally translated, "Allah is Great".

Pardon me, but I think the rencong blade is of low-quality manufacture and a tourist piece.

Here's another rencong blade for comparison:
http://www.kampungnet.com.sg/modules...view_album.php

Alam Shah, thank you for the translation and comments. No need to apologize, as you are stating something which is obvious.
I would love to see pictures on KampungNet, but they take forever to load.

Regards,

Teodor

[Battara]

Actually your blade looks like steel with brass inlay inscription.

One question I have is were these blades etched or left alone?

[BluErf]

The blade looks brass to me. I wonder if it was made from a mould derived from a good old example?

[TVV]

Originally Posted by Battara

Actually your blade looks like steel with brass inlay inscription.

One question I have is were these blades etched or left alone?

You are right - as I wrote in my first post the blade is low quality steel, of triangular section, with brass inlay made in grooves. I know there are grooves because on the other side of the blade where some of the inlay is missing you can clearly see them. There are file marks all over the blade, and whoever did the inlay did a very poor job - in areas it has spilled out of the grooves in smudges.