I have been continuing my research on this piece. One way of research is to poll colleagues to get their opinion so I had this with me back in March at Timonium. I received quite a wide variety of opinion as to where this piece originated and potential age. So, I decide the best way to further the research was to have one side of the blade polished to reveal any metallurgical details. The blade turns out to be wootz steel. The pattern is very faint, not very visible, but definitely there. So, this would rule out an European trade blade and this would rule out Africa as far as Kaskara or Takouba blade. The blade, while simple looking in pictures, is quite well forged, very well tempered and the steel is quite hard, not only on the edges but the body as well. It is extremely flexible and sharp. As Philip put it, it was made for business. Also, we were able to determine other things from the polish. The tang is not seperately forged on but integral with the blade. The fullers are forged into the blade and run right up to the tang. The tip was made this way. I have added two additional images, one is a close up of the tang area, and the other is a close up of the faint wootz pattern(probably mostly lost due to lack of heat control during forging) so that with this additional information we may collectively have new opinions about this piece. Thoughts?
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16th July 2006, 01:55 AM
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