Arabian sword, new or old? opinions please

tom hyle · 4th April 2005, 05:22 PM

The white adhesive is not something I've seen on old pieces, though European cutlers' pitch is often a pale cream colour. The grips don't seem old to me, and I suspect this sword has had a fairly recent rehilting/refurbishing. The blade looks like an old one that has been cleaned by recent soft-buffing (notice the pits; notice also that it has been cleaned under the lagnets, which is nearly impossible while the sword is assembled.). I have come to doubt the usual diagnosis of these multifullered thinnish blades as European, especially when the grooves run off the base of the blade; I think it's an Islamic blade; it closely resembles N African blades I've seen. The only part of the scabbard that stands out as a stamping, rather than hand-embossed and graven is the narrow reinforcing band you show a close-up of. It seems to be a modern repair on an old sheath. There is another that looks similar (2 such bands total), but there's no close-up of it. I can't see the tang-band well enough to tell if it is stamped or hand-decorated. The guard appears to be old. I'm utterly baffled as to any idea of this as a tourist sword. My guess concerning the wave near the tip is that it is not so much the result of longterm repeated sharpening, but a single incident of sharpening out a damage.

4th April 2005, 05:22 PM	#4
tom hyle Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Houston, TX, USA Posts: 1,254	The white adhesive is not something I've seen on old pieces, though European cutlers' pitch is often a pale cream colour. The grips don't seem old to me, and I suspect this sword has had a fairly recent rehilting/refurbishing. The blade looks like an old one that has been cleaned by recent soft-buffing (notice the pits; notice also that it has been cleaned under the lagnets, which is nearly impossible while the sword is assembled.). I have come to doubt the usual diagnosis of these multifullered thinnish blades as European, especially when the grooves run off the base of the blade; I think it's an Islamic blade; it closely resembles N African blades I've seen. The only part of the scabbard that stands out as a stamping, rather than hand-embossed and graven is the narrow reinforcing band you show a close-up of. It seems to be a modern repair on an old sheath. There is another that looks similar (2 such bands total), but there's no close-up of it. I can't see the tang-band well enough to tell if it is stamped or hand-decorated. The guard appears to be old. I'm utterly baffled as to any idea of this as a tourist sword. My guess concerning the wave near the tip is that it is not so much the result of longterm repeated sharpening, but a single incident of sharpening out a damage.