Old Kaskara

[Iain]

There is no doubt in my mind the marks were applied within Germany. Keep in mind that we are talking about a process which involved a lot of manual labor still, marks were not invariably struck to the same depth or precision.

The fly looks to be dirty to me, also, it is simply not technically possible to strike the mark after the blade had been heat-treated. This would require reheating the blade and destroying the temper. This is why native marks applied to European blades are engraved, they are not stamped.

There is no mystery why these blades turn up in kaskara and takouba, the trade in blades to both Sudan and the wider Sahel we know flowed mainly through Egypt and then, at least for many centuries, Borno was the key distribution point.

The copper fills turn up not only on Kull blades and conversely not all kull blades had them applied. Here's another http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=22651 that is very high quality but a slightly different configuration, perhaps produced a bit earlier.

I think its also imporant to remember that there will always be minor variations in the position of stamps, depth of the marks etc. The same can be observed on a multitude of munitions grade blades including schiavonas that were also mass produced.

[ariel]

Just finished on E-Bay: a kaskara that is virtually identical to mine.
Both the " cat" and the "globus cruciger" marks were filled with molten brass and the excesses were sanded away
1. There is some residual brass outside the outline of both marks , kind of unremoved spill-overs.
2. The same is true for the "cat" mark, but in addition there are small round protrusions , like bubbles from the bottom of the mark that had risen to the surface or just pieces of dirt.
Interestingly, the same is seen on Ed's last example.

The "fly" mark was left infilled ( also just like "Ed's). I would guess that structure of the mars was too complex and crowded to guarantee good definition after sanding.

I think that strongly suggests local filling of the existing marks with molten brass rather than inlaying them with brass wire.

[Iain]

Originally Posted by ariel

Just finished on E-Bay: a kaskara that is virtually identical to mine.
Both the " cat" and the "globus cruciger" marks were filled with molten brass and the excesses were sanded away
1. There is some residual brass outside the outline of both marks , kind of unremoved spill-overs.
2. The same is true for the "cat" mark, but in addition there are small round protrusions , like bubbles from the bottom of the mark that had risen to the surface or just pieces of dirt.
Interestingly, the same is seen on Ed's last example.

The "fly" mark was left infilled ( also just like "Ed's). I would guess that structure of the mars was too complex and crowded to guarantee good definition after sanding.

I think that strongly suggests local filling of the existing marks with molten brass rather than inlaying them with brass wire.

Agreed, I have always thought these were poured, rather than using the latten method.

[ariel]

Sorry. Wrong thread.