Quote:
Originally Posted by Maurice
Hi,
These blades were stamped 'trade blades' from the VOC, and low quality iron bought for instance in Japan.
The VOC stamped these low quality trade blades with a VOC stamp, chamber and date, to raise the value of their tradeware or because the VOC marks were expected on the blades by the Timorese traders.
The VOC members themselves had high quality blades, without VOC stamps, made and bought in Solingen (Germany).
Regards,
Maurice
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Thank you for the information. Here is a comparison with one that has VOC stamp (bottom three photos) and stamped 1741. The VOC blade shows irregular grain. I posted these in European forum for comment as well.