Sword for comment

[Taffjones]

Thanks for the replies so far. Have just tried to take some better close up photographs of the script. Apologies if I have the writing the wrong way up etc.

[Iain]

Hi Darren,

One thing you might try is taking a good look under the cross guard with a strong light, if this is a trade blade it might have a stamp on the base of the blade. This is often obscured by the guard.

[Jim McDougall]

Darren, this kaskara is a particularly nice find mostly for the blade with these significant markings and motif. These are well described in Reed, 1987, ("Kaskara from Northern Darfur, Sudan, JAAS, Vol XII, #3, March 1987) where plate LV shows several associated examples.
I would think this blade may be from the early 20th century, and while it seems well made enough to be European, probably is of native manufacture. The motif on this blade includes the crescent moons and devotional inscription panel associated with the Lohr, a wooden board used by religious scribes . The moons represent significant cosmological configurations often relating to key times or events, and the snake represents the python (assala) important symbolically in native folk religions of these regions.

Certain of these markings are clearly imitating the face on European astral markings often seen on trade blades. The crescent moon within circle is distinctly mentioned by Reed (example d) and termed locally 'the old moon in the new moons' arms' and associated with events or symbolism as mentioned.

[katana]

Interesting that this blade has 2 fullers .....single and 3 fullered being more usual.

Kind Regards David

[Taffjones]

Have just tried to find a stamp under the cross guard using a torch but nothing seen. I will try to clean this area and hopefully a stamp maybe under the rust there. Have just had a look through previous posts and apparently the lion mark is frequently seen on this type of blade.

[ariel]

Ain't gonna be European:-) The fullers are hand made and very uneven and crude. And the blade is flat and likely quite thin. African work.


Interesting how they managed to mix both European and native symbols ( with a Persian-inspired? snake on top). So many symbols must have been intended to indicate exceedingly good quality :-)
The crossguard is quite nice.

[Lew]

Hi Taffjones

Ariel is correct but there were some high quality native blades produce in the early 20th century. I also have a boys Kaskara with a blade that was dated back to the late 1600s or early 1700s. Here are my examples for comparison.