Persian shamshir in need of restoration

[Drabant1701]

Originally Posted by MARW

Hi everyone. I got a persian shamshir with an Assadullah mark not so long ago. The shamshir was in a terrible state and hence got it at a bargain price.

I intended to restore it and couldn't resist opening it up since there was a lot of active rust on the tang and inside the guard.

So far I have cleaned the blade, removed much of the active rust, and found that perhaps it was historically repaired before (the tang bands are welded).

Can you guys suggest some further steps? especially I am missing the pommel cap. Is there some way to source an antique one or someone might have one laying around and would like to sell?

I have tried etching it with coffee and it turns extremely dark but without any pattern.

In my experience instant coffe only etches laminated blades. Yours is most likely wootz. As mentioned earlier lemon, vinager, ferric chloride and sulphuric acid are ways to etch wootz blades. I find lemon good if you just want to check if something is wootz. When I etch whole swords I use ferric chloride since I don not have acsess to sulphuric acid. Getting a good etch with ferric chloride is hard, I usually etch very dark and then polish it to near mirror finish. As previosly stated you should put some more work on the blade before etching. I use a 800-1200 sand paper and hand polish until I have a mirror finish on the surfaces not pitted.

I have one wootz blade that is pitted like the one you have and its is very har getting a nice etch on it, I would probably just leave that one as is if it was mine. As for the pommel cap, I once had the same problem, a persian sword with missing pommel cap. I never manage to find antique replacement and newly made ones from india did not look good. Best option is probably have a craftsman make you a one, it is expensive but it would do the sword most justice.

Anyway, a very nice sword, I really like the crossguard.