wootz blade welded back together

Philip · 5th December 2006, 05:29 AM

Here we have a finely-made shamshir blade with a weld joint roughly midway between guard and tip.

If wootz blades were "sometimes" made in segments because of small quantities of material available, we would see more specimens assembled in this same way. I've come across hundreds of wootz swords which I've owned, restored for customers, seen in private collections, and studied in museums, and this is just one of a couple that have these midpoint weld joints.

Also, the blade is otherwise of quite fine quality, and the welded area aside, quite beautiful. Something like this would have been made to order for someone who could afford it, and was not a munition grade weapon issued to common soldiery. Economy would not have been a factor in the manufacture of a shamshir such as this.

Steel smelters in the Near East were perfectly capable of producing ingots sufficient for blades of impressive size -- Persian sabers with massive 35+ inch blades, made of a single ingot, are not uncommon.

Occasionally, one does encounter specimens of Indian talwars of lower quality, with a welded joint at the forte, generally a couple of inches ahead of the hilt. The forte/tang section, and the remainder of the blade, are of different pieces of steel; this can be seen from the texture and color of the two areas. On the contrary, the shamshir seen in this thread appears to be made of the same type of wootz. Also, the weld joint on the talwars is always close to the hilt, and in my experience is not found midway towards the tip as is the case of this shamshir. There is no comparison between the quality level of these talwars and the shamshir which is the subject of this thread.

5th December 2006, 05:29 AM	#1
Philip Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: California Posts: 1,036	made that way? Here we have a finely-made shamshir blade with a weld joint roughly midway between guard and tip. If wootz blades were "sometimes" made in segments because of small quantities of material available, we would see more specimens assembled in this same way. I've come across hundreds of wootz swords which I've owned, restored for customers, seen in private collections, and studied in museums, and this is just one of a couple that have these midpoint weld joints. Also, the blade is otherwise of quite fine quality, and the welded area aside, quite beautiful. Something like this would have been made to order for someone who could afford it, and was not a munition grade weapon issued to common soldiery. Economy would not have been a factor in the manufacture of a shamshir such as this. Steel smelters in the Near East were perfectly capable of producing ingots sufficient for blades of impressive size -- Persian sabers with massive 35+ inch blades, made of a single ingot, are not uncommon. Occasionally, one does encounter specimens of Indian talwars of lower quality, with a welded joint at the forte, generally a couple of inches ahead of the hilt. The forte/tang section, and the remainder of the blade, are of different pieces of steel; this can be seen from the texture and color of the two areas. On the contrary, the shamshir seen in this thread appears to be made of the same type of wootz. Also, the weld joint on the talwars is always close to the hilt, and in my experience is not found midway towards the tip as is the case of this shamshir. There is no comparison between the quality level of these talwars and the shamshir which is the subject of this thread. Last edited by Philip; 5th December 2006 at 06:25 AM.