old shamshir

[mariusgmioc]

Originally Posted by mahratt

The handle is made of a cow horn or buffalo horn. This is normal for that time. A handle from a rhino horn would not be made with such a simple blade and crossguard.

Very difficult to judge from the pictures but from what I see, the hilt may be rhino horn. It should be noted that rhino horn while not very popular in Persian swords, was almost standard issue on Turkish shamshirs. Also in the 19th century rhino was much more common than it is now... and that is one of the reasons why rhinos are critically endagered species today.

Last but not least, I believe the blade is in quite poor condition and because of that, we cannot correctly assess its quality. After proper maintenance it can be revealed to be a mundane monosteel blade or a beautiful wootz one.