There are many kinds of wood used in the making of ethnographic weapons. The specific species of tree varies by geographic location and local environment. From the point of view of construction of a weapon, it is useful to classify woods by their properties, such as hardness, degree of resistance to pests, and ease of working into various weapon parts.
In the Phillipines, we find the moderately heavy woods comparable to the harder pines. They are of the dipterocarp type, including the well-known red and white lauans and the tanguile. The harder Avoods comparable to the mahoganies have a fine grain and take on a high polish. Woods of this class are the molave, the narra, and ipil. The third group includes the ebony-like camagon which runs from black to brown and comes from the mabolo tree.
The most common use made of these woods is in the fine and ornately carved sword hilts.
See also: Keris Wood Materials