What every girl needs: killer accessories
This is my broadsword Excalibur. It was given to me a long, long time ago, by someone with an impressive white beard. Of course it’s chipped—you should see the other guy, hahaha.
Last Saturday in Batangas I saw a fabulous display of locally-crafted balisong and antique knives at the My City, My SM launch at SM City Batangas. (Yes, in SM! Security must’ve had ten coronaries apiece.)
This year (so far) our big cultural moment in Hollywood was in Kick Ass, the movie by Matthew Vaughn. In the movie Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) is raising his 11-year-old daughter Hit Girl (adorable Chloe Moretz) to be a superhero. On her birthday he gives her a balisong (in English, fan knife). “What’s this?” he asks the child, who is thrilled. “It’s a bal. . .It’s Filipino,” she says, and proceeds to demonstrate her skill with it.
I stared at the balisong for so long, they gave me one (Jedi mind trick). It’s very cute. Cute is not a word usually associated with weaponry.
So the next day I went to Ona’s Batangas Blades and got a bigger one. (My sister also wanted one. Nainggit.) The first one I looked at was cool—you could whip it out and open it in half a second. “How much is this?” I asked.
“P6,500.”
Six thousand five hundred?! What’s it made of, shards of Narsil?
“It’s a Damascus blade,” the manager said.
“Wow.” I figured a Damascus blade is from the ancient Damascene sword-making tradition. The Crusades! But not within my budget. So I got this instead, for P280. (Ona’s is at 114 Balisong Street, Taal, Batangas, tel. +639273166946, email Onadiosdado@yahoo.com.)
The handle is made of bone. I think of it as a tooth of Shai Hulud—a maker.
Today when I got home from lunch I stopped at the guardhouse to ask if anyone had delivered any packages for me, and the guard produced this. He didn’t even blink, being accustomed to the stuff that gets delivered to my house.
When people travel they usually come back with presents for their friends (pasalubong)—a wallet, a book, a giant box of chocolate from the duty-free shop. I get swords. And earrings.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
July 20th, 2010 at 01:00
How heavy is the broadsword? And have you already “used” it? Hehe.
I’ve always wanted to own a katana, or a wakizashi.
July 20th, 2010 at 03:44
im envious of your swords.. i wish my friends would give me similar gifts :)
July 20th, 2010 at 09:35
Out of context, mukhang ye olde style gunting. Before they found out to use loops for fingers.
July 20th, 2010 at 10:42
wow nagpunta ka pala dine…kmusta nman ang trapik sa Batangas (the Bridge of promise was destroyed by typhoon Ondoy)…
how about a pen knife so it will be concealed…
July 20th, 2010 at 10:54
Off topic: news about Charice – the 18-year-old who had televised botox injections to make her round face narrow – hit entertainment news here in the U.S. Sad that Charice gave in to the peanut gallery you wrote about in your “The Philippines is in Scandinavia” post. Sad. And I really don’t get Vicky Belo. Has she lost her mind?
July 20th, 2010 at 11:01
Here;s the CNN link:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/celebrity.news.gossip/07/19/charice.botox.ppl/index.html?hpt=Sbin
July 20th, 2010 at 11:33
This post was truly awesome. Is that katana made the old-fashioned way with the different grades of steel forged into one?
Also, Kick Ass himself used a pair of eskrima, although I can’t remember if it got an explicit shout-out in the movie like the balisong. Nightwing uses them too and sometimes refers to them by their proper name. Also, Dick Grayson is now Batman full-time and he has used them while wearing the cowl recently in Batman #700.
Cheers.
July 20th, 2010 at 12:13
jeffwar314: The Star highway is great, but everything slows down at the one-lane temporary replacement for the Bridge of Promise.
July 20th, 2010 at 14:21
Hehehe, the time of pinoys in hollywood is dawning. We are also invading the video gaming scene… Soul Caliber II includes”Talim”, their first pinay character, in their roster of playable fighters:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talim
July 20th, 2010 at 18:18
Awesome swords! Impressive pocket knives! Sharp objects on display in the middle of an SM Mall! Gotta love Batangas. That’s all I can say while I’m on-topic.
Besides, since I was planning on going off-topic: Charice, Schmarice! I’m more excited about Cecile Licad sharing top billing with Wynton Marsalis on this project:
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/louis/
July 20th, 2010 at 21:53
me SM din sa Lipa di ga po kayo dadalaw? and visit The Farm at San Benito or Casarap and sample the halo halo with lambanog? (promotion?)
anyways, from what I heard, some balisong are made from the railroad tracks, they steal it from the old times (sabi ng mamay – LOLO ko)