Weapons Of Philippines

[Sundang]

i've been a lurker here for a while, and recently i've been reading some pretty interesting topic in regards to the weapons of FMA. my take on this is without these weapons, much of FMA as we know it won't be in existence. it is ironic that with the art being weapon based, the true sundangs that were used to perhaps even help develop some, if not most of FMA, are now but forgotten. when i saw this links, it brings a lot of pride, and reminded me of where i came from. i hope that you folks would enjoy and revere our ancestors' pride and joy...

http://www.arscives.com/historysteel/philippines.swords.htm

http://www.arscives.com/historysteel/display.htm

[danjuandesiga]

I can DIG IT!

[JBolton]

Very cool! Thanks for posting that Sundang. I have never seen the "Head Axes" before. They are very strange looking.

I have a kampilan with some blood stains on it that is a couple of hundred years old hanging in a glass case in my office. It is my first piece and my pride and joy!

I have learned that when warriors used a kampilan, they would enclose the blade in a thin wooden scabbard. When they needed to use it, they would just start fighting with the scabbard on and after the first few hits, the scabbard would disintegrate and the blade would then be exposed. That's why most times, you don't see kampilans with scabbards still intact.

[buster brown]

Very nice! My wife is from Kalinga apyao......Where the head axes were from. She tells me much of the area is still some what under "tribal law"
Tribal battles still take place there.
I hve not yet been able to convince her to take me to that mountain provience. (too dangerous for us white boys)
Very nice link!!
BB

[Sundang]

jbolton, you are correct. i would say most scabbard are tied with reeds or twine to hold it together, that way the blade can slice though the bindings and it'll just fall off. i say most, because there are also kampilan scabbards that serve as shield. it has a carved in handle, kinda like a suitcase.

the head axes are from the mountain province, just what buster brown said. the bontocs and kalingas are known to carry those type of headaxes.

[Talibong]

Great site , thanks for sharing. Particularily like the Samal Barong 169

Here's a link to Maestro Yuli Romo's Kampilan demo at the November 2005 FMAF monthly gathering -

http://fma.rtrinidad.com/files/yuli_romo_kampilan.divx.avi

[themorningstar]

i definitely applaud and congratulate the contributions and efforts of those who put the "history of steel" together.
however, i am deeply saddened by the massive amounts of inaccuracies and errors regarding philippine sandata in their website and exhibit.
i am hopeful that they will be able to fix and correct whatever they can for the benefit of many.

[Sundang]

themorningstar,
i just hope the visitors would enjoy the display and disregard all the inaccuracies that are written with it. sadly, someone is bound to use the descriptions as reference in the future, which put all our hard work in correcting our history back to square one.