6, and is slid up and down the shaft with a
slight twisting movement obtained by bending the wrist. The machine
becomes a flexible, many-bladed plane.
Baliwang alone makes the genuine Bontoc battle-ax. It is a strong,
serviceable blade of good temper, and is hafted to a short, strong,
straight wooden handle which is strengthened by a ferrule of iron
or braided bejuco. The ax has a slender point opposed to the bit or
cutting edge of the blade. This point is often thrust in the earth
and the upturned blade used as a stationary knife, on which the Igorot
cuts meats and other substances by drawing them lengthwise along the
sharp edge. The bit of the ax is at a small angle with the front and
back edges of the blade, and is nearly a straight line. The axes are
kept keen and sharp by whetstones collected and preserved solely for
the purpose. Besao, near Sagada, quarries and barters a good grade
of whetstone.
FIGURE 6
Bamboo spear-shaft dresser.
A slender, long-handled battle-ax now and then comes into the area
in trade from the north. Balbelasan, of old Abra Province, but now in
the northern part of extended Bontoc Province, is one of the pueblos
which produce this beautiful ax.
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