A little takouba and telek
 

Just a simple little village grade takouba, probably turn of the century or a bit after. Quite a simple thing with a soft iron blade. An interesting example of native forging.

More pics...

very cool! you know my collection of saifs, there is always a simple one around too! they have a spirit to them :-)

Good honest pieces, Iain. I like the native-made blades; do you think they are made from African smelted ore ?

Did you clean rust from the blades, if so what method have you used ? The result seems sympathetic to the metal.

Regards.

Thanks Colin and Lofty for the comments.

Colin, I did not clean these beyond a light oiling. From the look of the metal I would surmise a light polishing compound was used at some point. I am reasonably happy with the look and have no plans to change it for now.

I too like these simple honest blades. The tak is far better than the telek and seems to have some genuine age. The telek less so I think with visible grind marks and no real sharpness to the edge.

I think the takouba is made from locally smelted iron, or at least was made from "scratch", the telek looks more likely to be recycled steel to me.

I find these examples in some ways more interesting than the better quality typical 19th century trade blades. There is a lot more variance.

I forgot to mention in the original post that unusually the core of the grip on this sword is wood, with a layer of metal over top, then leather.