Zanzibar Sword

[Roland_M]

Another example of the rare and mysterious Zanzibar Sword.
Without the scabbard it is 70,5 cm long (58,5 cm blade only) and 72,5 cm total.
With 395 Grams the sword is very light for its length.

This was my first real auction and the picture in the catalogue showed nothing of the blade.
I was a little earlier there and was able to inspect the blade before the auction.
I draw the blade out of the scabbard and was thinking like one who found a gold nugget "What!! OMG! This is almost like new!"
I put it back in the scabbard very quickly to avoid any attention and and put it in the deepest corner of the showcase.
I had to wait long and exhausting six hours but in the end it was worth the waiting and hoping.

The blade is really amazing, very thin and flexible. It is a short and slightly curved rapier, especially designed to stab through chainmail and leather armour.
The point of this sword is the thinnest I ever saw. It is almost a real needle, the comparrison with the pen is impressive.
The first three inches after the point are unsharp, because of its purpose to stab through the rings of a chainmail armour (at least I think so).
The rest of the cutting edge is sharp.
The fantastic condition with only a little bit minor corrosion, allows me to research the old finishing techniques. The surface was smooth with great effort, not far away from japanese standard,
the edge is still very sharp.

The main reason for the good condition of the steel is the brass scabbard of very high quality.
Only the hairs of the red velvet and one of the pins in the middle of the scabbard are lost.
Between the sheath and the hilt is no gap, this demonstrates the high quality and makes the sword water resistant.
The hilt is made of horn and partially covered with brass. It is also in good condition, only some of the twisted decoration wires are lost.

Finally and to add a further point to the discussion, in my opinion the Zanzibar sword have some similarites to the Jordanian dagger.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.


Best wishes
Roland