The Omani Khanjar

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by NovelsRus

Salaams, Ibrahiim & Room,
I recently purchased a beautiful Omani Khanjar, only to have the blade promptly fall out the moment I unsheathed it. Apparently, the resin or lakk has become brittle over time, and cracked. When the blade dropped out, chunks of the resin and powdery crumbs came showering down. My question:
How best can I re-seat this blade into the hilt? I cannot afford to import insect resin from Pakistan, so I was thinking a good, solid resin-based epoxy glue might be OK. (I'm trying to stay authentic on this).
Also, what's the best cleaning agent for the exterior trim on the scabbard? Mine is quite tarnished or dirty, not at all like the photos on e-____ where I bought it.
Thank you for your time and help on this.
Sincerely,

John Fogarty
novelsrus@indy.rr.com

Salaams NovelsRus ~ That happens a lot as the lac dries out. Use epoxy as you say... I see no problem with that . Some people even use tar off the road ! Naturally we use the proper pucker lac but frankly you will get a better fix with epoxy. The good thing about lac is its easy to replace a blade and that happens a lot as local owners of Khanjars often look to upgrade blades or hilts.

For cleaning the silver there are some good silver polish products like Silvo and other quite good silver polish liquids... they all pretty well work ok... we use the old method of burnishing and polish with a brass bristled brush ~ Another way is with toothpaste ... it works very well. Scrub the whole thing or the part you want to clean and wash off the residue and oxide with water... dry and buff... Marvellous.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.