Gunong - Moro Tribal Knife (Repair/Refurbish)           X-009: Gunong - Moro Tribal Knife (Repair/Refurbish) This piece was a real privilege to be able to work on. A beautiful knife, likely crafted by the Moro Tribe of the Philippines. Given the design of the handle and blade, the knife was probably made between 1900 and 1920. As you can see from the first picture, the knife was, unfortunately, in pretty bad shape when it came to me. Years of neglect and misuse had taken a heavy toll. The knife had belonged to the owner's father who acquired it while stationed in the Philippines during World War II. The piece was likely a gift from the local tribe in thanks for the continued support and protection provided by the American troops during that time. The owner wanted to see if it could be repaired and restored to, at least, some of its former glory. Always liking a good challenge, I accepted. As you can see, the most obvious damage was the handle being completely broken off. Luckily it was a clean break and set back together almost seamlessly. While some of the decorative spacer pieces had been salvaged, there were still a number of them missing. To create the replacement spacers, I used water buffalo horn and colored micarta spacer material. The trick was cutting and shaping each spacer to the exact shape required in order to produce a smooth, flowing handle. The pieces had to be shaped to size prior to assembly as trying to shape the handle after assembly would have ruined many of the decorative pieces. Once all the spacers were cut, milled, and shaped, I inserted a small brass pin through the middle of each handle piece to provide added support at the break. I then lined up all the spacers and epoxied the handle back together. There were many small, decorative pieces also missing from various spacers in the handle. Because these pieces were too small to replicate exactly, I filled the empty spaces with various colors of wood filler depending on what color the original piece was. This worked very well and the minor color variations are barely visible. With a good soft buffing, the handle cleaned up beautifully! Once the handle was completed, I moved to restoring the blade. The edge was pretty much destroyed in some places and was bent and wrinkled. I re-ground the edge just enough to remove the bends and wrinkles and even it all out, but made sure I did not change the overall shape. After which, I put a new bevel edge on the piece and sharpened it up. I must say, the quality of the steel is excellent as it took a very nice edge! Once the blade had been repaired, I cleaned the rust off with Flitz Metal Polish. I also used the Flitz to clean up the brass collars on the sheath. I sanded out the wood sheath and removed as many chips and scratches as I could, then re-sealed it with a good sealer and wood finish. The last part remaining is the guard. I replaced the broken peg on the one side with a brass pin for added support. The guard on this knife was most likely hog tusks. The owner believes he still has these pieces and is currently looking for them. If he cannot find them, we will substitute them with tusks or horn that are consistent with the traditional Moro Gunongs of this time period. After doing a bit of research on this piece to try and pin down its origin and history, I was able to dig up some good information on these pieces. Click Here to check it out!   Order Information   Return to Knife Gallery     Copyright, West Coast Bladecraft