16thC African Sword

[Flavio]

Hello Brian, no this is Ijzerwerk van centraal-afrika (H. Westerdijk). This sword is from Congo tribe (tribe that is located near the congo-zaire river and the first that the Europen met when they "touched" the now a days Congo shores). For what I know these swords are 19th century old but for sure they copied the Portuguese older swords (see also this thread http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=4369) and they are more currencies than real weapons, but for sure there must be some older exemples that were the precedents of those that we can see today and that were real weapons


Edit: If I understand well (If the translator is correct ) in some examples the blades are imported from Europe and so at least some of these were real weapons and some still have some ivory pieces on the handle (and so no currencies at all). Where are our Belgian friends (Freddy!!!!) ???? The page is 66 (Groep X)