[Nihl]

Hi all, long-time-no-post! I suppose like a lot of people that frequent this forum, I have plenty of topics that I want to ask/comment about as a posts, but very little time to sit down and type up such things. Introductions aside, I was motivated by the unique & pretty clear history of this item to sit down and post about it!

I just got this off of ebay earlier this week by the way, so the pics I'm sharing are just from the seller, but according to USPS it should be here tomorrow! Fingers crossed a truck doesn't accidentally sit on it or something lol.

Anyways, what I have here is clearly a sword stick with handle scales transposed onto it from an archetypical, large-eared yataghan! To me the most logical story here is that it's some kind of bring back/trophy, either from actual combat or (I suppose more likely) from some kind of exploitative tourism or colonialism. This then to me seems like it would be a rather cool heirloom piece - the valuable, identifiable handle scales passed on to a style of sword more owner-friendly, long after the blade was deemed obsolete. Or, perhaps less romantically, stripped soullessly from the original piece, put on a more "refined" and "eloquent" style of weapon. Either way, a very cool juxtaposition of cultures and martial traditions. One further origin that's possible is that the whole piece is natively made; perhaps the native turkish owner of the original yataghan wanted this sword stick to be fashioned for it, keeping the scales, and reformatting it as a more western, then-socially acceptable style of sword, allowing them to be able to carry their ancestry about in public without scrutiny. Either way, somehow it got to Ohio, and will soon be in Minnesota lol.

I have yet to memorize the attributions for different yataghan styles, but I believe ears of this kind were just found on straight turkish-made examples right? Not greek or balkan? Also are the handle scales a discernible kind of ivory? I know walrus was quite auspicious but idk if elephant is the more likely material.

Also also I'm no expert on sword sticks, so if this one belongs to any identifiable style please let me know that too. That's actually part of the reason why I'm sharing it here, as the whole item is rather out of my area of expertise.

To be honest, part of the reason why I bought it in the first place was just because I liked the contrast between the wood, ivory, and metal fittings. I've always wanted a large-eared yataghan, but as a college student I've never had the money saved up for one, so this is a welcome alternative.

Finally, speaking on the materials, I'll post more close up pics of everything once I get it, but I'd be interested in conserving pretty much every aspect of this sword, so if someone could give me advice here or in private it would be much appreciated. There are some gaps/cracks in the wood and also quite clearly some kind of epoxy was used to fill several chips between one of the handle scales and the rest of the grip, so any advice on how I could remove that and at least replace it with a slightly less blatant repair would be similarly appreciated.