old blade on takouba ?

[francantolin]

Better ?

[Philip]

The Arabic inscriptions look to be etched, the penmanship being far neater than what is usually encountered on these blades. There is considerable wear to the lettering, "Mohammed" is the only thing I can make out. The wolf is of course chiseled and appears deeper and crisper than the etching. Given the condition of the inscriptions, wouldn't you expect more wear to wolfie if this was indeed an early Passau (or Solingen) blade recycled for use in a kaskara?

[Jim McDougall]

Indeed a kaskara of the Sudan, and it has always been interesting that these broadsword 'cousins' of North Africa have maintained their own autonomy in design while in many cases the smiths producing them, and often the blade sources were in degree shared in the intertribal connections and trade.

Many markings etc. are found on both takouba and kaskara in variation and degree, and genuine European blades seem to occur of course in both.

I would suggest that this blade was perhaps produced in either Khartoum or Omdurman around 1885, after the fall of Khartoum. Gordon had vast stores of machinery and metal in the workshops there for the infrastructure of railroads and river boats. This virtual scrap yard was supply for production of many necessities including blades.

The 'Passau wolf' seems of course a copy of the genuine ones seen on the blades coming into Sudan through Suakin and other ports. It's execution and placement seems contrary to what is normally the case with these.

The rust spotting in the blade seems more in line with 'industrial' metal if I am thinking correctly , reminding me of galvinized metal.....but I fear my inadequacy in metallurgy is showing. It just seems many of the knives and blades of Sudanese examples of this period into 20th c. have this kind of effect on the blades.

[Philip]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

The 'Passau wolf' seems of course a copy of the genuine ones seen on the blades coming into Sudan through Suakin and other ports. It's execution and placement seems contrary to what is normally the case with these.

The rust spotting in the blade seems more in line with 'industrial' metal if I am thinking correctly , reminding me of galvinized metal.....but I fear my inadequacy in metallurgy is showing. It just seems many of the knives and blades of Sudanese examples of this period into 20th c. have this kind of effect on the blades.

Hi, Jim
I agree entirely with your comments on the wolf.

Poring over the images of the blade, it's hard to tell from the surface in its current state whether it is recycled Western industrial steel, or an imported old European pre-industrial blade, or something else. Absent the Arabic markings and the oddly-shaped and placed canine fellow, the format of this blade is quite close to that of the 16th cent. German bastard sword which I posted in a related recent thread that we are both participating in, African Takouba with early(?) European(?) blade, post #10. That particular German sword, in its largely untouched state, clearly shows longitudinal undulating striations consistent with blades of the period, typically forged of steel made from iron carburized by the cementation process and folded or laminated to produce something akin to what was later called "shear steel" in England. I have an image of the surface in its existing, unrestored state but need to shrink the pixel count in order to post it. (Alan Williams' book The Sword and the Crucible fig 12 p 59, shows an example of this steel in newly polished and etched state for a better idea of what it looks like)

Many pre-modern European blades, under close inspection in good light, exhibit signs of this sort of layering.

However we must be mindful of the fact that blades were produced in European and British factories in the 19th cent. for export all over the world, in various styles to cater to specific markets. Shear steel continued to be popular for blades, but had to compete with crucible steel (which the ironworks of Sheffield were famous for), and production of these varieties resulted in different metallurgical characteristics in the finished product.

Polishing and etching of the surface would give a good idea of how the blade was produced. Photomicrographs and chemical analysis are means of refining the investigation.