European blades in India

[Roland_M]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Why, if they had such high regard for their own blades, would they add spurious European marks and inscriptions to imply 'quality' ?

A good question and i think, that an european blade has an exotic flair for an Indian warrior.
What i can say from my own collection is, that a well made pattern welded Indian sword easily reaches european quality in toughness and flexibility but with a higher sharpness.
Many of the famous Indian wootz-blades (woodgrain wootz) are trash from the technical point of view compared to european blades or well made Indian pattern welded steel.

Roland