My first Omani Khanjar

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by blue lander

I thought the rings on the side were for attaching to the belt, but it makes sense they're attached on the back as well.

I'm so excited to hear this khanjar might be approaching the 100 year mark. From reading your definitive khanjar thread I gather khanjars older than 50 or 60 years are not that common.

This floral tribe, is it the Zahran tribe?

In mentioning the 1920 s as the date of KSA inclusion I hope I did not indicate 100 years old or near... They have been making them in the same region up until now... Looking at the wear I would be happy with 30 years or something like that and some severe damage to the hilt ...maybe it got squashed ... Nothing wrong with 30 years ...Its old enough... Once you have repaired the hilt it will be fine.

[blue lander]

I don't think I can repair the hilt. It looks like it was crushed or perhaps twisted apart. Rather than putting the hilt together and repairing it, they just filled the cracks with what appears to be bondo. So the hilt can't be twisted back into shape or sealed back up unless I were to drill out the bondo. I'll leave it as is for the time being, it feels sturdier than it looks.

On a lighter note, I let my two year old inspect the khanjar scabbard (without the blade of course). She looked it over carefully, poked at it a few times and declared it to be a horn. She then repeated "horn" about 100 times, which she does when she's particularly sure of herself. So in her expert opinion, the khanjar's shape is definitely supposed to be an animal horn.

[ward]

Best way to clean is old toothbrush dipped in straight ammonia and a lot of elbow grease. Rinse out your brush afterwards and repeat process with warm water, dry it with old towel. Material inside the grip is borax, you can glue down the silver with dabs of epoxy. But don't get hot water near it.