Pata sword with European blade

[mariusgmioc]

Originally Posted by Kubur

Oh I see, thank you Jim. I was thinking that you was talking only about the one posted by Marius. And i have to admit that this blade has some strong similarities with kaskara. Maybe my photos are not good enough, but my blade has nothing to do with local African blades. Plus I never saw any good/ outstanding localy manufactured African blades... Do you really think that Indians were desperate enough to import bad African blades, I have some serious doubt... I take on board the possibility that europeans blades came to India via Africa, by Red sea trade or most likely by Indian ocean trade. I still hope to have other comments...

I agree with you here. I don't think your blade is of African origin because it is too big and too well made... BUT...
... it is quite possible that the engravings were of African origin, later added (although I am not so sure they cannot be of Indian origin).

Also with regards to my blade, it definitely is not plausible that a blade with such excellent mechanical properties (equivalent to modern highly alloyed spring steel) could have been forged anywhere in Africa.