Help with WW2 barong ...

[twdroppoint]

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help !

I saw this knife at an estate sale ... I think it's a WW2 barong, but I'm not sure. I didn't buy it yet, I wanted to get some input first.

The blade is bent just slightly, and it's very think but extremely sharp. It's all very firm, not loose at all on the handle. The name "Martin" is scratched into the blade, otherwise no markings anywhere of course. I'd guess it was 13" long (the blade). The handle is some type of wood I think. The estate company didn't know much about the owner, whether he was a vet or not ... but everything else they were selling showed he was old enough to be, for sure ... old tube radios, plenty of stuff from the 30's on up, etc.

The sheath is wooden except for the bands around it, those are a metal.

Any thoughts on authenticity and value ? Thanks in advance !

[btrwtr]

Looks authentic to me but certainly no expert. I have no idea of value. You might try eBay auctions searching the word borong, sold listings.

[Quick Steel]

I gather Martin is not the name of the former owner. I always associate barongs with the Philippines. I think it might be worthwhile to dig a bit, see if you can't discover if the owner was in the military, when, and specifically in the P.I. Certainly having some provenance for the knife would justify a greater value. And if the owner served in WW II then I think there will be some collector interest.

[twdroppoint]

Well unfortunately I went back the next day and someone had bought the knife

The estate sale company that was selling it still couldn't give me any information really on the owners, which is always sad to me, when they don't really take the time to get to know the history of some of the things they are selling. They didn't even know what the knife was ... I had to tell them.

My main concern about it, was the hilt, it just seems so plain. From what I have seen in the past of the couple I have come across, they are usually more ornate. And the sheath looks a bit cheap or something ... they can be relatively thin, but this one, I don't know.

It's somewhat a dead end I suppose now, since I couldn't purchase it for further examination :/

Thanks anyways to everyone

[twdroppoint]

Okay I got some input on this knife from another forum ...

The hilt is most likely just painted wood, the scabbard narra wood, and it's probably a more recent (mid to late 20th century) Visayan common work bolo. Not an actual barong.