Kaskara for comment

[Iain]

As I'm the one who suggested 19th century German I may as well chip in.

The blade is in my opinion a normal export pattern in that this type turns up enough in kaskara that they don't appear to be one-off imports. I would assume it would be from Solingen. Solingen makers exported heavily to the Sudanese market and specifically for kaskara. While the main makers I'm familiar with were Kull and Clauberg there would have been 9 major makers in Solingen at the time. Not every batch of blades seems to have featured stamps or markings. 94cm is a pretty standard size for kaskara blades, I assume overall it is about 1.1-1.2 meters? These nicely made, wide fullered blades turn up occasionally as what I think are genuine European imports and quite often as cruder local copies. You've got the good kind.

The ricasso on this is pretty normal and is just the base of the blade left as is and not ground to an edge. Nothing particularly odd about it just not all that common, I have seen them before - for example here's one from the sold archive at Oriental Arms. http://oriental-arms.com/item.php?id=1221

So in summary, definitely European, I think made for export pattern just based on circumstances and that I've seen others of a very similar form and the ricasso is just how it was hilted up. Just my opinion of course. Stephen or some of the other guys more heavily involved in kaskara research can, I'm sure, add more.

[Battara]

Yes I agree - very common to have European blades on these swords.

[Edster]

Mefidk,

Very nice sword. I can't add more about the blade. However, due to the "tassel" and general (excellent) decoration on the handle, I'd place it from Kassala. Could very well be in the 1910-20 period. I have one very similiar attached with that provenance. Sorry I couldn't select just one picture.

Best,
Ed

[Edster]

Sorry, can't get to photp to attach. Its in my Sword and Knife Makers of Kassala paper in the archive. P.6, Fig. 2 Hadendawa Sword.

[Mefidk]

Thanks for the appreciative remarks folks

Iain: I hadn't realised that there was so much trade that so many makers produced blades specially for the Sudanese market. Was it just German makers or did the other European bladesmiths have a share in the market? I guess the British were not too keen on arming the Sudanese at the time

The oriental arms sword is a very close match for this - thanks for the link. Yes, 109cm is the total length. I was surprised by the length because my other has a 84cm locally made blade (I guess this is kind of the Sudanese equivalent of the Indian armoury tulwar). The others I've seen have all been of the same basic type. I guess that I have just not been lucky enough to see any good quality swords before.

Ed: Thanks, great info. I managed to find the paper ( here if anyone is interested http://www.vikingsword.com/ethsword/hunley/kassala.pdf ) - an excellent and very useful work btw.
Certainly does look like there are strong similarities between mine, yours and the oriental arms sword. Do I take it that you are suggesting that this style of decoration was produced exclusively in Kassala, or is the style more general?

Chris

[Iain]

Chris,

As far as I know kaskara imported blades tend to be German. There are I think, a number of factors in this. The main one being that Solingen as a blade center by this point was industrialized and simply the biggest blade production center in Europe. It still accounts for 90% of all knives made in Germany even today!

I am not sure why Solingen zeroed in on takouba and kaskara blades but they seem to be the main folks in the trade. Italian blades tend to show up in nimcha and other coastal types. Wilkinson made patterns to order for Ethiopia, which were supplemented by Solingen products as well. Essentially Solingen were the big players and covered just about every market. I've often wondered if this flurry of export activity was due to a reduced need inside Europe for military pattern swords. With a large number of makers based in a single city I would imagine their production capacity far outstripped regional and national needs, so they had to look farther afield. Many period travelers note the European blades for sale in the Sahel and quite a few specifically mention German blades, not other countries.

While I'm more familiar with the takouba situation on the western side of the Sahel, generally speaking there was a massive import market for European manufactured goods such as needles and other products that the Europeans had industrialized at this point. The cost of manufacturing was so divergent between the Sahel and Europe that even when factoring in transport the European product could often essentially undercut the locally made item. This doesn't apply perhaps so much to swords but illustrates in general the trade relationship and level of integration between Europe and the Sahel.

About length, this varies as you've already seen. Some European blades are shorter, some are longer. Same with the native blades. Many of the native blades, particularly older ones, are by no means "bad" quality. They must have performed just fine at the time. They're is some resemblance to munitions grade talwars in that the large number of locally produced blades fulfilled a need among the average tribesman to own a kaskara. I would assume the imports were reserved for those with rank, money and social status.

[Edster]

Chris,

I think the tassel is stylistically of the Hadendawa. However, I can't say that they were made exclusively in Kassala. Could have originated in other sword making areas of Eastern Sudan, primarily in Atbara. But I have seen high end Atbara swords with the harlequin silver handle and no tassel. Atbara sword makers would serve both a Nile Valley tribes as well as the Hadendawa market. All this said, I'd bet on it being from Kassala.

Regards,
Ed