An engraved Kaskara For discussion and a question

efrahjalt · 14th September 2023, 03:04 PM

Thanks all for the comments and great info. Sorry for the late reply.

excellent breakdown of the hilt and blade types. This gave me some new eyes as I looked for other examples. Wile digging up other kaskara examples with similar celestial symbols I found a few different hilt types. Some examples had earlier Mahdiyya period (I think) smaller pommels (almost like a swell at the back of the grip instead of a distinct pommel disc. Others appeared to have newer style grips which makes we think they were possibly re-gripped. I can imagine the organic grips were not durable of a long period and I can see them being re-wrapped in the new style frequently. Much less barer to reworking than say a European blade with an iron pommel riveted in place. Given these blades are though to come from the 18c (correction from my original post where I got the dates wrong). I wonder if an older style grip is most appropriate here. Also, I'd like to know what the cross guard style can tell us about age. Perhaps that may be a better indicator. Of course it could be changed too or altered, but it perhaps is more likely to remain unchanged compared to the grip wrapping. Lost of speculation here, so please correct me if I'm getting off track.

Great shot of the pommel. It almost looks like the leather from the grip section is pulled over the back of the wrapped strips of leather from the inside to hold it all together. This is worn off, except in once section, of your example exposing the wrapped strips. It's a little hard to see where that is coming from. Do you think I'm interpreting it correctly? I have seen similar features on other examples.

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14th September 2023, 03:04 PM	#5
efrahjalt Member Join Date: Mar 2020 Posts: 58	Thanks all for the comments and great info. Sorry for the late reply. excellent breakdown of the hilt and blade types. This gave me some new eyes as I looked for other examples. Wile digging up other kaskara examples with similar celestial symbols I found a few different hilt types. Some examples had earlier Mahdiyya period (I think) smaller pommels (almost like a swell at the back of the grip instead of a distinct pommel disc. Others appeared to have newer style grips which makes we think they were possibly re-gripped. I can imagine the organic grips were not durable of a long period and I can see them being re-wrapped in the new style frequently. Much less barer to reworking than say a European blade with an iron pommel riveted in place. Given these blades are though to come from the 18c (correction from my original post where I got the dates wrong). I wonder if an older style grip is most appropriate here. Also, I'd like to know what the cross guard style can tell us about age. Perhaps that may be a better indicator. Of course it could be changed too or altered, but it perhaps is more likely to remain unchanged compared to the grip wrapping. Lost of speculation here, so please correct me if I'm getting off track. Great shot of the pommel. It almost looks like the leather from the grip section is pulled over the back of the wrapped strips of leather from the inside to hold it all together. This is worn off, except in once section, of your example exposing the wrapped strips. It's a little hard to see where that is coming from. Do you think I'm interpreting it correctly? I have seen similar features on other examples.