Barung with blotchy pattern welding - Borneo?

[kai]

Here is an antique Barung which exhibits a very distinctive pattern welding: Looks almost like bits of high-carbon steel were thrown into melted iron and slices of this material subsequently utilized for sandwiching the high-carbon steel core. Well, I expect this pattern to have been forged but I really have a hard time to understand how this was actually done by the bladesmith!

I have seen this pattern before but only with Barung and not any of the other Moro blades! It seems to be pretty rare, too. A more knowledgeable member commented that this pattern may suggest an Indonesian origin. My guess would be leaning towards one of the coastal Moro settlements of North Borneo, maybe Tausug or Samal?

total length 54.5 cm / 21.5 in
weight 760 g / 1 lbs 10 oz

blade length (without hilt) 39.3 cm / 15.5 in
max. blade width 66.9 mm / 2 2/3 in
max. blade thickness 7.5 mm

[kai]

More pics: warrior blade pommel with small piece of the crest missing. There also used to be a braided band between the silver sleeve and the pommel (either silver wire or lacquered jute twine).

[kai]

Bunti pommel - sorry for the blurry pic!

[Rick]

Kai,
I have a Barung with a similar pattern though I haven't been able to highlight it as you have .

Nice work .

[Maurice]

Interesting.....I hope maybe Ben and Michael can tell us more about the answers if Borneo or not.

[VVV]

Originally Posted by Maurice

Interesting.....I hope maybe Ben and Michael can tell us more about the answers if Borneo or not.

I can't anyway.
I don't understand why "A more knowledgeable member commented that this pattern may suggest an Indonesian origin" on a non-Indonesian weapon?
And I don't understand why everything odd from this region "probably is" Borneo?

I have also seen this pattern before on other barongs.
But so far I haven't read anything about specifically these barongs being either collected, or manufactured, in Borneo/Sabah.

Michael

PS Very nice barong btw!