[Simon G.]

(In this rather short review I shall attempt to follow - more or less - myArmoury.com's standard review form, despite this being only an amateurish attempt at reviewing a weapon I am not familiar with - but do own - for what said attempt is worth, and in the hope that it will be useful to somebody out there - cheers !)

Pictures to follow shortly.

Stats (as supplied by vendors) :
Overall length : 25"
Weight : 30.1 oz
Blade length : 18"
Blade width : 2 3/4" wide
Blade thickness at the spine : 1/4"

Why I own it
Thus the story of this acquisition goes : I wanted to order a Spyderco Tri-Angle Sharpmaker. Living in France, the cheapest I could find at a local seller was about 70€. On an American knife products site, it was for sale for 50$. At the current exchange rate, that was something like 40€ less ! However, said American vendor would not ship overseas for orders under 100$. So I had the choice between paying less, but for "nothing", and ordering something with my Spyderco to reach the 100$ limit. I chose the latter - because I did not want to pay double price for nuts - and I chose a Cold Steel Moro Barong. It was sold for $106, more than what I was looking for, but it did look attractive and interesting...

Before going on, I should point out that my interest lies mainly with European blades, but I can be - and often have been, in fact - interested in other designs, particularily from overlooked areas (Asia outside Japan). I am not a practitioner of Filipino Martial Arts and have no knowledge about Filipino weapons.

Fit and Finish
What I liked in this product was that, from the pictures, it did not follow Cold Steel tendancy for very modern, "tactical" designs - very angular and all-black - that I personaly do not care for. On the other hand, being a Cold Steel product, I could expect some quality there.

The product meets these expectations. It is sturdy and quite no-frills, still it is well-made. Both the carbon steel blade and the rosewood handle have beautiful curves. It is definitely machine-made, with modern looks, but not ugly either ; overall, it is pleasant to the eye, while not being a work of art shining with finesse and craftsmanship (but hey, for $100...).

I like how the blade is curved - this barong shape really is quite unusual, and interesting - and how it is very, very smooth. It looks like a shining metal leaf. The beautiful mirror polish adds to this. The false edge is, however, not very pretty : it is thick and does not taper much. This, however, might just be a normal feature on barongs. Also, the metal plate inserted where the blade meets the handle is, to my taste, a bit too thick and large. These two features spoil the aspect a bit, making an overall pretty short sword looking a bit like a big butcher's knife - but only under certain angles and when focusing on the aforementioned details. I may try to correct them in the future, notably this metal plate thing.

The handle is in the same fashion. It is quite beautiful, with flowing curves, two grooves near the blade as the only decoration, and two little, discreet brass rivets on each side connecting it, I suppose, with the tang. Despite this, I should note that the handle is not constructed like a knife's : it is all in one piece.

Same goes for the scabbard. It is a well-made rosewood scabbard all in one piece. My only regret is that, contrary to what was pictured, there are steel shapes at both ends, and these are really not fantastic, rather ugly in fact. I will probably try to remove them, they seem friction-fit.

Handling Charecteristics
Again with no experience in the Filipino Martial Arts it is meant to be used with, I can only say this Cold Steel Barong handles rather well. It as a lot of blade presence, as expected from such a machete-like weapon. But the well-shaped handle, with its hooked butt (falcata-like), really helps to compensate this : it allows for excellent control and, when making great slashing motions (which I supposed this weapon is meant to do), the barong can be stopped on spot due to the excellent lever-action the handle allows for.

I have tested it on some (very unrealistic) targets and it does cut well ; soda bottles or wood dowels are no match for it. The blade showed absolutely no damage despite being used in somewhat abusive conditions (cutting dowels on a table). I thought it would fare poorly against bottles, the blade being so heavy and thick at the back, but in fact, the well-crafted edge and the very smoothly and roundly expansing profile of the blade allowed for an easy and clean cut with the weapon right out the box (it does not have, as is, a shaving edge). From this I suspect this weapon could make for a very serviceable machete.

I wonder wether it is too heavy, like many Cold Steel products seem to be. As per handling, it is heavy for sure, but well manageable, and my guess is that it is meant to be heavy. The other barong replica I've seen - CAS Iberia's - is only 4oz. lighter, and its blade is a tad shorter.

Do I recommand it ?
That's difficult to say, because I did not buy it on purpose, and have so little knowledge about this type of weapon. Personaly however, I'm glad I bought it, and it will be a welcome addition to my little collection (I should note that I am at the time not very discriminating). I feel it is quite beautiful, handles well, and is worth its price of 106$. It has some little drawbacks to my eye, but I am encouraged to tinker with them so I get it more like I'd want, which shouldn't be too difficult. That's all I can say.