Omani Sayf/Saif

[Edster]

Kai,

I don't recall any smith plunge a blade into an oil or water bath or see such a container, just the water tray I mentioned. No doubt I missed that part. The two days I hung around the Kassala smithy was my first experience among sword & knife makers. Even though I was/am a mechanical engineer, I likely didn't really understand all of what I was seeing. The goal of my anthropological investigation was "the social economics or sword & knife production" (what the various actors were doing and how much they could earn). Now I wish I had focused/documented more on the production process.

The smiths seemed very methodological and apparently knew what they were doing. They used no gages and all dimensions were my eye. They apparently had made so many blades that they may have been on auto-pilot; just felt the making rather than a step-by-step process. They began with a billet of spring steel, split it to add length and started the elongation process. The actual dimensions of the finished blade were ultimately defined from the size of the initial chunk of steel. The sword was contained within the original billet. Each smith used his individual skill/experience/magic to produce a finished blade to his satisfaction using the available technology. I think bendy or not was just how it turned out. I could be wrong in my ignorance.

Jim,
I think that once the dimensions of a dancing sword were known; like forte size, if any and blade taper & thickness, balance point, length, weight, whatever, a skilled smith could make bendy swords at will to the local cultural market. The Kassala smiths were making serviceable weapons to their cultural market and bendy was great, but not required.

Best,
Ed