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#1 |
Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
Posts: 5,503
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Believe it or not, but I just slouched into our local flea market, and...
Here they are: Old Indian Hilts (as per Rawson), Lozenge-shaped blades ( thin, but not flat, rather diamond-shaped) with scarring and heavy patination, still sharp and obviously good steel ( bend and return to true). Handles and langets painted green ( old paint). Top finials are not long , but octagonal. All tight and without rust. Questions: -What part of India? -Proper name ( Patissa????) -Age - To clean or not to clean? To de-paint or not? If anybody wants to hazard a guess about monetary worth, please do not do it here: send me a PM or an E-Mail Last edited by ariel; 22nd February 2008 at 09:47 PM. |
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#2 |
(deceased)
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: OKLAHOMA, USA
Posts: 3,138
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A VERY NICE AND UNUSUAL FIND, CONGRADULATIONS.
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#3 |
Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
Posts: 5,503
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I made a small window on one of them and quickly etched it.
Mechanical damascus? |
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#4 | |
Member
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin
Posts: 163
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Yes and no. It is the result of welding, but more to consolidate the bloom than intentional patterning. Prior to large amounts of cast steel being traded and produced ALL steels and irons were the result of various bloomery or "direct reduction" smelts and the resulting iron/steel was forge-welded into a a larger mass simply to get enough solid material from which to forge a sword. I saw similar things when in India, but I do not know the name. Some had very large blades with that handle style. Ric |
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#5 |
Arms Historian
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Route 66
Posts: 9,871
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These two are indeed the 'old Indian hilt' often termed khanda in various references and the hilt style the basis for the Hindu basket hilt which evolved after European contact by end of the 16th century. The widened spatulate blade tip corresponds to the slashing sword strokes favored by the Marathas and according to C.Purdon Clarke (1898, 1910 as ref. in Elgood.p.83 "Hindu Arms & Ritual") and Pant (p.66), this would be termed a 'pattisa'.
Clarke also considers this hilt form to be pre 17th century. These definitely have considerable age, and I wonder if the green paint may have been applied to preserve the deteriorating iron on the hilts. I am not sure why the green color, or if that might have had some significance to whoever applied it. It would be difficult to say without close examination whether the hilts are original to the blades, but they seem to have corroborative age. Whether that would reach early 17th c. is hard to say, but traditional weapons seem to have not only have survived long periods, but in India, atavistic recreations of them seem favored as well. These could well be interpretations of the earlier form that may have been made as late as 18th century for traditional purposes. |
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