Mandau

[Pertinax]

Mandau hilts were a form of currency in Borneo. If necessary, the owner could remove the hilt from the sword and sell it.

Best regards,
Yuri

[Marc M.]

Originally Posted by Pertinax

Mandau hilts were a form of currency in Borneo. If necessary, the owner could remove the hilt from the sword and sell it.

Best regards,
Yuri

Hi Yuri, thanks for the info, no idea the handle was/is a monetary value. You do come across loose handles.

Regards
Marc

[asomotif]

As for the monetary system. an interesting book is :

Stranger in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo

By Eric Hanssen

Het crossed the Island by foot in the early 80's and in that time such a journey still depended on trade items, rather than money.

[asomotif]

Here some pictures of my mandau which I think qualifies as mantikei.

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by asomotif

Here some pictures of my mandau which I think qualifies as mantikei.

Hi Willem,

Sorry, forget you as a person who knows also well about mandaus!

And thank you for providing the word "mantikei" for laminated mandaus, I searched for nothing in my memories for this word!

PS: I see a little bit of rust at the tip of the blade from your nice mantikei mandau you should care about!

Regards,
Detlef

[Marc M.]

Impressive chopper.

Regards
Marc