For those who love African swords

Jim McDougall · 27th February 2010, 10:38 PM

Interesting to see the native blade, which is indeed much shorter.

As Gav has noted, there seems to be a great deal of symbolic potential in the structural elements of the pommel, and the pyramidal shape is apparantly quite atypical. Most of the examples seem to have spherical knob type pommels with structural graduation supporting them.
Another point of observation, has anyone considered the obvious flared scabbard tip which is consistant on these, and compares to the scabbards of the Sudanese kaskara...........it is interesting the note that the Tuareg takouba which is of course thoroughly present across continguous Sahara regions does not adopt that characteristic.

Best regards,
Jim

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27th February 2010, 10:38 PM	#12
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,191	Interesting to see the native blade, which is indeed much shorter. As Gav has noted, there seems to be a great deal of symbolic potential in the structural elements of the pommel, and the pyramidal shape is apparantly quite atypical. Most of the examples seem to have spherical knob type pommels with structural graduation supporting them. Another point of observation, has anyone considered the obvious flared scabbard tip which is consistant on these, and compares to the scabbards of the Sudanese kaskara...........it is interesting the note that the Tuareg takouba which is of course thoroughly present across continguous Sahara regions does not adopt that characteristic. Best regards, Jim