Cut steel decorations on Indian arms

[kronckew]

Originally Posted by Philip

An attractive and quite interesting catter, kronkew! Looks like a recycled European blade, or the tip end thereof? Interesting that laminations are visible which are in keeping with pre-industrial manufacture.

Yup, I like it a lot, broken off tip of a euro blade I think. the carrier was a bit more decorative once, but is well worn and a bit pitted, but the blade is still tight and functional, wish it were a bit wider tho, can only hold it with 4 fingers.

[Philip]

Originally Posted by kronckew

wish it were a bit wider tho, can only hold it with 4 fingers.

Southern catter hilts are often a tad cramped, the peoples of the deep south are mostly of Dravidian stock and are of smaller stature than northerners. They sure were great metalworkers, though. Their cut and pierced steel work is tops, as is that from the nearby island of Sri Lanka at the tip of the Subcontinent.

[Kubur]

I have the little sister
And here is what i think... (who wants to be a millionaire)
All these katars had originaly 3 rivets but as you said the blade was not securely fitted. So the owners have to do some basic soldering to reinforce the thing.
Most of these katars have the same problem: disgusting and ugly soldering and it cannot be the armorer who did this lovely katar...

[mahratt]

The rivets on these katars always seemed to me not very reliable.

[kronckew]

Originally Posted by mahratt

The rivets on these katars always seemed to me not very reliable.

Yet they were used on these and other longer weapons for quite a long time, as were quite short stub tangs on swords, khukuris and daggers held in by a thermoplastic resin. Must have been reliable enough...

In our modern overbuilt throwaway if it breaks - we should have made it thicker/heavier and stringer/harder - world, we forget that it was never like that before, if it came loose, or broke, it was fixed, recycled, hehilted, reshaped, resharpened, rebladed, repurposed, repaired it until there was nothing left.

[Nihl]

Just to add to the examples here, one of my katars appears to have had the blade taken off its original hilt and then brazed onto its current one. Also kind of surprised no ones mentioned copper soldering yet. I have a tulwar hilt that appears to have had liberal amounts of copper involved with its construction (most easily seen on the pommel disk - pic included), and actually the same katar that had its blade remounted also has its crossbars copper soldered to the sidebars. I might be remembering this incorrectly, but I'm pretty sure I've also seen a number of examples of bara jamdadus (hooded katars) that have the balls in the middle of the crossbars soldered together with copper.

Edit: Reuploaded the tulwar pic so the soldering is more visible.

[ariel]

I have several Indian swords/daggers with riveted blades and the assemblage is very strong and reliable.

Earlier, I have mentioned a composite Indian sword I have: S. Indian blade of a very ancient pattern and a " newer" ( 16-19 cen.) pattern basket handle.
Here we are not talking about a repair of a weak assembly: this is an obvious case of a composite sword.
Blades of that construction had a very short tang and a very tight handle; there was very poor, if any, protection for the hand. Thus, it is not a miracle that the later owner decided to modernize the sword by attaching the blade to a solid basket handle. He retained riveting, but further strengthened the assembly with very extensive brazing. One can see large areas of brazing as well as smaller blisters of brass around the entire connection.

Also interesting, that although Western travelers repeatedly mentioned absence of stabbing function in the old swordplay arsenal of Indian warriors, this one has massive change of geometry of the tip of the blade ( ~ 8" long) resulting in a " zirah bouk" type tip. Old Indians did stab, a stabbed hard.

I am inviting your opinions re. potential dating of the components and the final product.
Thanks.