The Kishangarh armoury mark

[Jens Nordlunde]

The armoury markings from Kishangarh can be seen in a lot of different qualities. Have a look at these two. The deep and sharp one is from a tulwar and the other is from a katar, not that the type of weapon means anything, as most of the marks are like the one on the katar, even if they are seen on weapons of high quality. The method used was, supplying wax to the blade, removing the wax there the acid should etch, add acid and after some time, neutralise the acid and remove the wax. I am wondering, why they did not remove the wax there the letters and numbers were supposed to be, instead of around the letters and numbers, as I think it would have looked more need. Any comments and other examples?

BTW did you know that the word 'garh' means a fort?

[Lew]

Jens

Can you post the entire picture of the katar and sword please.

TY

Lew

[Jens Nordlunde]

Yes Lew I could, but I fail to see, a good reason why I should, as the discussion quickly would be on the weapons, and not on my question asked, so I may show them in another thread, but not now.

[Lew]

Originally Posted by Jens Nordlunde

Yes Lew I could, but I fail to see, a good reason why I should, as the discussion quickly would be on the weapons, and not on my question asked, so I may show them in another thread, but not now.

Jens

The reason I asked to see the entire katar is to compare two styles of the same weapon from two different armouries Bikinar vs Kishangarh. Your question was I am wondering, why they did not remove the wax where the letters and numbers were supposed to be your question is not that clear to me but here is my opinion of the two different methods. I have only seen swords and katars with the dot matrix markings have not seen any examples from this armoury yet. Maybe when you are making a large number of swords you use the easiest or simplest technique to mark the swords in order to save time and money. Could they have made the mark by a spilling some hot wax on the blade applying a stamp waiting for the wax to cool and then removing the wax from around the letters this would leave the raised mark? If you used the opposite technique of applying a blob of wax and then scribing the letters in the wax adding the acid then removing the access wax it would not give you that 3D effect. Could just be the the first technique even though it maybe more envolved is just more artistically pleasing to the eye?


Lew

[spiral]

Originally Posted by Jens Nordlunde

BTW did you know that the word 'garh' means a fort?

That how Garwhal & the Garwalis got there name. The land of forts.

Many Gurkhas in the 19th century were realy Garhwalis.

Nice marks.... Id take raised letter over sunken any day.

Spiral

[Jens Nordlunde]

Yes I agree that raised letters look better than sunken letters, but what makes me wonder is this. Sunken letters would have been faster to make, mostly more precise and cheaper to make. The raised letters are mostly made in an inferior way as they were more difficult to make, and more time was needed to make them. When they still used the raised letters, why did they not take the time to make them more need, and why did they not make the boarder look nice?

I don't think they used a stamp, as the marks I have seen look differently, so they must have been handmade individually.

Lew, I will start a new thread on the two katars.

[Lew]

Jens

If you are pouring hot wax on on a blade you will get a random shaped blob maybe that is why the border is so irregular.

Lew

[Jens Nordlunde]

Yes I know Lew, but to make it need you could have made the mark inside the wax.
Jens

[Lew]

Jens

This is going to make an interesting experiment I have a friend that is a blade smith and has all the supplies for a test run. I will email him and see if he can recreate this type of mark on some steel scraps.

Lew