This time I want to share with you four of my best pieces. Best because they are complete with thier decorated scabbards. Scabbards are usually found in terrible shape, when they are not missing altogether. Ethiopian scabbards for shotels, gurades and seifs were made of tough raw hide covered with very thin leather, usually red in color, or velvet. The leather was poorly tanned and did not last very long. It became brittle and simply fell apart. Velvet had a better chance of survival.... Some scabbards were decorated with furniture in brass or silver. As pointed before in this thread, some of these furnitures were used as knives scabbards. The seif in the picture has a leather covered scabbard. The 3 gurades have velvet covered scabbards. If you have an Ethiopian sword with decorated scabbard, PLEASE post it.
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