Recently made Omani Kattara / Saif

[katana]

Originally Posted by Iain

I'll jump in here for a sec. To my knowledge there is really no reason to think this is the case. This basic pattern was in plentiful supply it would seem from European sources and from local manufacture. The resemblance in blade profiles I think is simply due to local copying of similar European patterns.

It is possible that there was importation from the Red Sea area, but I have never run across a reference to it in the period accounts from the Sahel region - just references to local manufacture and European imports.

Hi Iain,
thanks for the input, I was thinking of a 'supply' in modern times, say the last 2 or 3 decades .... it was just a thought, as the blade on this Saif seems an anomaly ie not usual for a dance blade.

All the best
David