Looking for the young Panday in Albay

The clang of metal being pounded in makeshift workshops in Barangay Cobo here is getting fainter by the day. From as many as more than 40 families, only 12 are left to sustain the production of cutlery products—bolos, knives, scissors and blades of all shapes and sizes—in the village, said Eric Valeriano, tourism officer of Tabaco City in Albay province.

Not a few wrongly associate Tabaco as a producer of tobacco products. But it earned its name from the thriving industry that has been producing “tabak,” the ubiquitous bolo used by farming folk, since the early 1900s.

Valeriano is worried that younger residents have not taken interest in the craft, as they prefer to take on call center jobs or engage in less backbreaking tasks, away from the forges.

“The number of people who are involved in the cutlery industry has been decreasing steadily,” he observed. “This saddens us because we are losing our skilled blacksmiths, who contribute to the city’s tourism.”

Tourist destination

Toy Tanang, 45, has been forging blades of all shapes and sizes for 20 years, earning the respect of his peers who call him “maestro” (master). Photo by Mark Alvic Esplana/INQUIRER

The workshops, forges and stores selling knives, blades and other products have attracted visitors, prompting the city government to include a visit to Cobo in its itinerary for tourists.

Valeriano said the city was losing its “panday” (blacksmiths). While they devote a great amount of time and effort into their metal craft, they earn a little from selling the products, he said.

Knives, bolos, scissors and decorative swords are sold between P100 and P1,000 apiece. The forges also produce “kudkuran” (coconut graters), which are sold for P150 a dozen. Workers earn at least P300 a day for a job that requires strenuous manual labor and long hours in cramped, scorching workshops.

Wilson Bondoy, 57, village chief of Cobo, the top blade-producing community in Tabaco, said skilled blacksmiths were not getting younger, with some of them sidelined by sickness. “We are losing our skilled panday, some of them getting sick, mostly afflicted with tuberculosis,” he said.

Backbreaking

Oliver Brozo, 47, is a “parapolo,” a blacksmith who also specializes in making handles. Photo by Mark Alvic Esplana/INQUIRER

Bondoy, a blacksmith himself, had sent two children to college. “This job is really hard. You have to invest time and hard work in order to survive this backbreaking job so I wouldn’t be surprised if the younger generation would stay away from this industry,” he said.

With only a handful of workers, Bondoy said he was having a hard time meeting the demand from his clients in Zamboanga City and the provinces of Palawan and Quezon. Without a younger set of skilled blacksmiths, innovation and the aid of modern forges, he said, the local industry would find it hard to compete and take off.

Armando Bonaobra, 59, said the job is no walk in the park. “This job is tedious, dirty. This is the reason why my only son did not attempt to engage into this kind of work,” the 30-year veteran of the forge. Toy Tanang, 45, and Felix Belgar, 46, both veteran tabak makers, lamented the losing interest to sustain the industry.

“Working long hours in an area with sweltering temperatures takes perseverance and courage. I think no one among the younger generation could endure this condition,” Tanang said.

Arnold Nipolo, 37, has been producing scissors for 17 years. He described the job as risky and dangerous. “I got injured several times. My fingers once slipped off and hit the blade of a grinder when I was polishing a blade,” he said.

Technique

Valentino Boncasas, 46, makes sure no dull blade comes out of his work station. Photo by Mark Alvic Esplana/INQUIRER

Abelardo Isidro, 60, who started making blades when he was 15, said he was having a hard time teaching his 15-year-old son, Angelo, to produce kudkuran. “He could not perfect the technique. You should be fast when you mold these blades,” he said.

But Isidro promised to be patient until his son acquires the necessary skills.

Andrea Boseo, 36, the only woman engaged in the business, vowed to continue using the knife-making skills that her father had taught her when she was 13.

“I will not stop doing this because this is our only source of livelihood [that] I know [I’m good at],” she said. When asked if she would encourage her children to take on the family business, Boseo said: “Never. It’s very dangerous.”

Brute force and skill shape heated metal into useful blades. Photo by Mark Alvic Esplana/INQUIRER

Bolos and knives forged in the workshops of Tabaco help residents in their farm and household chores. Photo by Mark Alvic Esplana/INQUIRER

The blacksmith’s calloused hands have sustained a community livelihood in Barangay Cobo. Photo by Mark Alvic Esplana/INQUIRER