Firangi with European blade

[Roland_M]

Originally Posted by Tatyana Dianova

It is also relatively thin, lightly flexible and well balanced, unlike the Indian made blades. The blade is not laminated - I have put a Renaissance wax with a cloth to it. I was never able to melt the wax with a hair drier as advised to make it transparent and uniform.
Jens, thank you for your interest. I have made extra pictures of the handle. It is heavily silver plated. I guess it is South Indian or Deccani from 18th century or earlier?

Hello Tatyana,

I added two pictures with visible laminations for you. At least I think they show open laminations, better macro-pictures would be helpful.

Especially the open laminations close to the ricasso makes me think it is of Indian origin.

Long European blades of the 18th and 19th ct. are normally not thin, because these were used as cavalry-swords and European cavalry horses were very massive. They also were often not well balanced so that they need a large and heavy hilt, sometimes plus a pommel.

Thin, flexible and well balanced blades are also a feature of some Indian blades and I own one.

I tend to believe, your Firangi has been made in the late 18th to mid 19th ct., because the blade is imho(!) too well preserved for middle 18th or 17th ct..

If you have problems with wax and a hairdryer, you should use a hot air pistol and an temperature of ~100-120°C. The airflow of your hair dryer is probably not hot enough. I always use the hot air pistol, the hair dryer is just an emergency solution.


Roland