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Originally Posted by freebooter
Thanks to everyone for their input on these lovely knives, there is much diversity and information to digest.
They have arrived and I am quite taken with them. I'll get to posting further images in a few days when time is easier to find.
I have a few questions though.
There are different materials used in the hilts of these, plastic, Rhino horn, timber, silver, ivory etc but I have also heard of giraffe hoof being used too.
As these two I have here are horn hilted jambiyas, is the any clear way of identifying the horn? Could they be giraffe hoof? Can anyone point to a good reference of identifying any hoof rather than horn?
Also the other question I have is one that opinions may vary, to clean off the tarnish or leave it? I am sure these will glow if it is removed but does this detract from their presence? Me personally, I would love to clean the silver and show off more of their beauty.
Gav
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Salaams freebooter~ I was about to write an article on Patina when I saw your post in library and decided to place it here with perhaps a copy on my
"The Omani Khanjar" thread as well.. Naturally collectors admire and seek that syndrome we call patina but in the living breathing form i.e. Local Arab users of what we call ethnographic arms here in Arabia the view is different. These khanjars are for wearing and against a pure white dishdash, Omani national dress, the weapons must be spotlessly clean... Otherwise the silver oxide makes an awful mess as it rubs off onto the white dishdash robes ! Its as simple as that.
Quite often khanjars come in for cleaning... removal of the patina... but rest assured patina on silver returns really fast. It is continually oxidising ... In the store we have new items under glass which oxidise quite slowly and other khanjars... 50 or so hanging on the wall... that are full of patina ... A local client will often ask that a khanjar is cleaned before he takes it... It takes an hour... We use the same items as our silver workshops ... water and a brass bristled brush which only takes off the silver oxide and gives a burnished bright clean silver look... highly polished the khanjar is then dried in the sun, buffed with a clean cloth and ready for collection.
Of course this is opposite to what many collectors want... but as I say... patina on silver returns very quickly and in a few months it is complete ... at which point the collector may wish to highlight certain aspects of the silver in a partial polish up thus keeping the contrasting older patina partly intact.
Technically we don't actually remove patina but only by definition remove the "silver oxide" The old, rounded, soft effect to silver items is therefor enhanced but I hope my explanation describes the two views of the same subject.
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.