Owners of takouba and kaskara - a little help needed!

[Iain]

Originally Posted by regihis

Hello Iain,
The analysis of the swords using the literature is wonderful. It would be a fantastic complement the use of chemical analyzes and comparisons. There is already such a study?

Hi Regihis,

Unfortunately not to my knowledge. I believe such techniques would require material samples from the blades. Personally I am not willing to sacrifice anything in my collection like that.

As far as I know - there is not an exact test for dating iron. However it is possible to analyse the composition of iron, such as the carbon content.

However if someone knows of lab tests that could accomplish this without somewhat destructive sampling required... I would be extremely happy to hear about it!