Interesting Serrated Pulwar

Jim McDougall · 22nd February 2014, 08:09 PM

Steve, nicely noted and great images graphically illustrating. With this being the case, I would suggest perhaps deliberate attempt at imitating some of the auspiciously featured elements on certain Islamic swords such as the more notably serrated edges on the dual bladed Dhu'-faqar.

Often weapons have had deliberately placed features such as notching and piercing for reasons that elude conclusive answers. On Austrian cavalry swords for example, many 18th century examples had a deliberately placed notch near the tip of the blade.

While that example of course has nothing to do with this, it simply illustrates that many times deliberate features such as this have no apparent practical purpose, yet may have powerful temporal meaning symbolically. On the other hand, they could simply be poor imitations of such features on other known swords

spiral · 22nd February 2014, 10:31 PM

Interesting Archer...

From what you say & the new pics it does seem finer damage then the old kitchen knife sharpeners..

But to me the "serrations" still look like they would have a blunting effect, where serrations to improve cut have a sharpening effect. {sorry for stating the obvious there!}

The indentations on your blade appear essentialy horizontal to the cutting plane? essentially blunting it, not scallops steeply angled to improve true meat slicing ability?

As Jim implies there may be some deep esoteric/spiritual/ritual or religious reason for this, that I or we have no current understanding off, but in all honesty to my mind it would make it less of a practical weapon, than either the normal edge bevel or a properly angled scalloped edge.

spiral

archer · 24th February 2014, 05:24 PM

Thank you all for your thoughts. On a whim,holding a 8X10 sheet of paper in one hand and choking up on the blade in the other, I found with no effort or force the blade easily slices thru a sheet of paper, even though most of the blade is now less than sharp. Following thru I repeated same with another Tulwar blade I considered fairly sharp. It cut, but not as evenly or as well slipping away. Steak knife serrations remain factory sharp even though the points may dull from contact with a plate. What were the main reasons for the more exaggerated serrations we've seen recently on this forum, mauling tears, or to insure continued sharpness between the serrations in battle? Thanks again, Steve

24th February 2014, 05:24 PM	#3
archer Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 373	Sharpness Test Thank you all for your thoughts. On a whim,holding a 8X10 sheet of paper in one hand and choking up on the blade in the other, I found with no effort or force the blade easily slices thru a sheet of paper, even though most of the blade is now less than sharp. Following thru I repeated same with another Tulwar blade I considered fairly sharp. It cut, but not as evenly or as well slipping away. Steak knife serrations remain factory sharp even though the points may dull from contact with a plate. What were the main reasons for the more exaggerated serrations we've seen recently on this forum, mauling tears, or to insure continued sharpness between the serrations in battle? Thanks again, Steve

22nd February 2014, 08:09 PM	#1
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,281	Steve, nicely noted and great images graphically illustrating. With this being the case, I would suggest perhaps deliberate attempt at imitating some of the auspiciously featured elements on certain Islamic swords such as the more notably serrated edges on the dual bladed Dhu'-faqar. Often weapons have had deliberately placed features such as notching and piercing for reasons that elude conclusive answers. On Austrian cavalry swords for example, many 18th century examples had a deliberately placed notch near the tip of the blade. While that example of course has nothing to do with this, it simply illustrates that many times deliberate features such as this have no apparent practical purpose, yet may have powerful temporal meaning symbolically. On the other hand, they could simply be poor imitations of such features on other known swords

22nd February 2014, 10:31 PM	#2
spiral Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 1,712	Interesting Archer... From what you say & the new pics it does seem finer damage then the old kitchen knife sharpeners.. But to me the "serrations" still look like they would have a blunting effect, where serrations to improve cut have a sharpening effect. {sorry for stating the obvious there!} The indentations on your blade appear essentialy horizontal to the cutting plane? essentially blunting it, not scallops steeply angled to improve true meat slicing ability? As Jim implies there may be some deep esoteric/spiritual/ritual or religious reason for this, that I or we have no current understanding off, but in all honesty to my mind it would make it less of a practical weapon, than either the normal edge bevel or a properly angled scalloped edge. spiral