Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

ariel · 1st March 2019, 08:42 PM

The blade is indeed Persian, it is a classic Khanjar.
I cannot see the handle well, and cannot comment on its age and material. One needs to hold it and often inspect it with a magnifier. It may be a cow horn judging from the white spots, but the tang is peaned, and this is something that is not often seen on contemporary replacements. In any case, handles were made from organic materials , got damaged and replaced. I would put any hesitations about the handle on a back burner.

The wootz... it is fine. You are asking about its name ( variety).
I think we could safely call it Khorasan, but there is a problem: there are more than 30 names for the wootz patterns in different sources, and we have reasonably uniform definition of maybe 5-7 of them. Wootz was made in multiple localities, its pattern depended in large measure on the forging technique of the smith, and we have no idea how the smith viewed his creation. Again, as I mentioned above, most names, mentioned in contemporaneous sources from different localities , have no defined equivalents in existing examples. What was called Bayaz Stambouli might have been called something different in another place. This is not what we see in Indonesian Kris pamor, where each pattern can be firmly attributed.

The very definition of wootz is a relatively novel field. Every blade with a pattern used to be called Damascus, whether it was real wootz, mechanical one or even superficially etched. Suffice it to say, that even a book by Rawson, published in 1967 did not distinguished them. Anosov is credited with reinventing the technique of wootz manufacture and claimed that he created blades with sophisticated Persian patterns, such as Khorasan and Taban. However, all his existing creations show the simplest Sham pattern. He was brought information about making wootz ingots, but lacked knowledge about forging tricks.

Even now, with extensive study of metallography, sophisticated metallurgical equipment etc, contemporary wootz bladesmiths cannot make even a short blade identical to the old ones. Long blades are even more unapproachable. I know of only one bladesmith from Georgia named Zaqro Nonikashvili, whose work come close to the sophisticated beauty of old masters.

So much of the old knowledge was lost..... Manufacture of wootz blades practically ceased by the mid-19th century and mass production of European monosteels of superior quality made wootz obsolete. The art of wootz manufacture simply went the way of Dodo.

1st March 2019, 08:42 PM	#3
ariel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 5,503	The blade is indeed Persian, it is a classic Khanjar. I cannot see the handle well, and cannot comment on its age and material. One needs to hold it and often inspect it with a magnifier. It may be a cow horn judging from the white spots, but the tang is peaned, and this is something that is not often seen on contemporary replacements. In any case, handles were made from organic materials , got damaged and replaced. I would put any hesitations about the handle on a back burner. The wootz... it is fine. You are asking about its name ( variety). I think we could safely call it Khorasan, but there is a problem: there are more than 30 names for the wootz patterns in different sources, and we have reasonably uniform definition of maybe 5-7 of them. Wootz was made in multiple localities, its pattern depended in large measure on the forging technique of the smith, and we have no idea how the smith viewed his creation. Again, as I mentioned above, most names, mentioned in contemporaneous sources from different localities , have no defined equivalents in existing examples. What was called Bayaz Stambouli might have been called something different in another place. This is not what we see in Indonesian Kris pamor, where each pattern can be firmly attributed. The very definition of wootz is a relatively novel field. Every blade with a pattern used to be called Damascus, whether it was real wootz, mechanical one or even superficially etched. Suffice it to say, that even a book by Rawson, published in 1967 did not distinguished them. Anosov is credited with reinventing the technique of wootz manufacture and claimed that he created blades with sophisticated Persian patterns, such as Khorasan and Taban. However, all his existing creations show the simplest Sham pattern. He was brought information about making wootz ingots, but lacked knowledge about forging tricks. Even now, with extensive study of metallography, sophisticated metallurgical equipment etc, contemporary wootz bladesmiths cannot make even a short blade identical to the old ones. Long blades are even more unapproachable. I know of only one bladesmith from Georgia named Zaqro Nonikashvili, whose work come close to the sophisticated beauty of old masters. So much of the old knowledge was lost..... Manufacture of wootz blades practically ceased by the mid-19th century and mass production of European monosteels of superior quality made wootz obsolete. The art of wootz manufacture simply went the way of Dodo. Last edited by ariel; 1st March 2019 at 08:52 PM.