Here is a new and hopefully improved kaskara flex test.
In the pictures I've made a small press to hold the swords - this is not strictly necessary as long as its possible to hold the sword firmly and horizontally so that there is no movement of the hilt when the blade bends.
To this end for a sword with a large pommel you need to either extend the pommel over the press at the back, or as I have done in the picture below, use a pieces of wood to rest the guard on to level the blade. By the way when I did this 'for real' I put a cloth around the grip and pommel to ensure no damage was done - and there is no need to overtighten this - please be careful not to crush anything.
So the test:
1.grip the sword in the press or other device so that the blade is held out horizontally, flat edge upwards.
2. tape a small piece of light wood to the blade so that the end of the wood is at 50cm from the hilt. This is where the weight will be applied and the wood stops it sliding dowm the blade.
3. Get a carrier bag or other light bag and put in 2kg of something (sugar often comes in 1kg bags - so raid the kitchen)
4. Hang the bag on the blade resting against the piece of wood at 50cm from the hilt.
5. Measure the height of the blade from the floor at 60cm (you need this 10cm to allow the ruler to avoid fouling the bag).
6. Remove the weighted bag and read off the height from the floor again at 60cm.
7. Subtract the smaller from the bigger height measure and you have a measure of the flex under fairly standard conditions.
I figure this method can pretty much be applied by anyone (the last time I used another kind of weight), and I think it is pretty easy to get reliable results. Btw it does matter whether the blade is held horizontally before and after you apply the weight (I had not fully realised this last time).
Using the new method I have some new figures for the four kaskara blades:
1. 19C German blade, Kassala mounts: 60 mm
2. Native blade: 49mm
3. W. Clauberg blade: 72mm
4. Unknown blade. 62mm
Flex for the unknown blade lies between the european blades, but the 19C sword is wider so this will affect the flex.
I hope others might try this out with known blades and perhaps it will give us some information we can use for unknown blades.
Chris
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