Belatu/Balato from South Nias

[Sajen]

I've won a German auction with a lot of two swords, a belatu from North Nias and a pedang from Sumatra. When the auction was finished I noticed in another, unsold lot the charm ball for the scabbard of the Nias balato. So I phoned and wrote to the auction house about it and they added the charm ball to the lot for free.
Here are the poor auction pictures.

[Sajen]

Here my own pictures from the belatu.

[Sajen]

More pics!

Like you can see, shows the scabbard a tribal repair and the handle shows an encrusted patination, both I want to preserve.

[Sajen]

The charm ball has alternating real teeth and wooden teeth. The real ones are socketed with wooden pegs. The charm ball fits the socket from the scabbard well.
The belatu was collected between 1970-1972 in Pematang-Siantar from a German who worked to this time on Sumatra.

[asomotif]

Hi Detlef,

What a great find, and with the amulet ball as a bonus.
super patina. I would not clean it too much. just preserve the blade.

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by asomotif

Hi Detlef,

What a great find, and with the amulet ball as a bonus.
super patina. I would not clean it too much. just preserve the blade.

Hi Willem,

Thank you! I don't will remove any patina. But the blade will get cleaned but not polished, I only will remove rust and grease.

Regards,
Detlef

[Sajen]

One side of the blade is cleaned, done with a Japanese rust rubber, the metal parts got rubbed with a towel only and the wooden parts got rubbed with a towel and linseed oil, no patina got removed.

[naturalist]

Just curious with the pedang, what is the distinct characters with pedang lombok? The gajah mungkur hilt looks like pedang lombok.

[Sajen]

My honest North Nias collection!

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by naturalist

Just curious with the pedang, what is the distinct characters with pedang lombok? The gajah mungkur hilt looks like pedang lombok.

For me it's mainly the scabbard construction with the horn throat, the blade shape and to a lesser degree the style of the carving and the embossing on the siver mounts. Compare with another Sumatran pedang.

Last picture shows from up to down:

pedang Lombok
pedang Sumatra
pedang Sumbawa

[naturalist]

Thanks

Originally Posted by Sajen

For me it's mainly the scabbard construction with the horn throat, the blade shape and to a lesser degree the style of the carving and the embossing on the siver mounts. Compare with another Sumatran pedang.

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by naturalist

Thanks

You're welcome!