Scarf Welding On A Malay Sundang???

[CharlesS]

Most of us are familiar with a method of welding two different portions of a steel blade together known as "scarf welding". This is probably most common on Indian tulwars and the lines indicating the scarf weld can be found closer to the hilt end of the blade. It is not terribly rare to find a tulwar with a blade that is homogenous steel at the forte and welded together with any degree of quality of wootz steel for the remaining length of the blade.

There are a number theories about why this was done. What it clearly is not, is a break in the blade. The lines indicating the scarf weld are generally some distance apart on opposite sides of the blade indicating that the two portions of the blade have been overlaid together for strength and then welded.

This is the first time I have seen anything like this on any kind of kriss or sundang. I was so startled by it that I hoped other members could confirm that a scarf weld is exactly what it is.

Note:

* a line on each side of the blade, each offset by about 3/4 of an inch.
* the two sides of the line seem to show two very different forms of steel construction. The different "grains" of the steel on opposite sides of the line is immediately noticeable.
* the blade continuity is not disturbed at all, and there is no impact to the edge at the weld point.

Assuming this is, indeed, a scarf weld it is a bit of a shock to me. I have never seen this on a SE Asian sundang or kriss. I suppose it should not be a huge surprise with the trade and cultural contact between India and Malaysian and other portions of SE Asia.

Assuming it is copied from the Indian idea or version of scarf welding, this example has certainly done the art a good turn as the weld seems near perfectly executed(one side better than the other) with no real indication of the seam opening as is sometimes the case with Indian examples of scarf welding. It looks to be a quality job.

I have included a diagram of a scarf welding technique(source: Autonopedia)

I am anxious to hear from others regarding their opinion about this blade.

[A. G. Maisey]

Charles, to my eye this does not look like a scarf weld.

From what I can see in the photo it seems that the softer iron that forms the sorsoran area of the blade has been split and the steel that forms the working part of the blade has been inserted into the opened iron.

It may present differently in the hand, but that's what it looks like on my monitor.

As to why this was done on this particular blade, perhaps the material used for the working part of the blade was not large enough to permit the sorsoran to be forged out. That occurs to me immediately,but I guess we could come up with a number of other ideas too if we put our minds to it.

[RSWORD]

Charles,

A most interesting example you have there. This is the first example of a scarf weld in a Moro piece I have seen as well. There simply may not be enough in polish or polished examples out there to know I this was common, uncommon or that this is a one of. I can say you do see scarf welding outside of India. I have a 17/18th century Vietnamese Guom Truong that has a scarf welded blade. My understanding is that you can also see scarf welding in Japanese long swords.

The other interesting part of yours is that the portion of the blade nearest the hilt seems to have a finer lamination than the body of the blade. It also has some fine chiseling. Typically, on Indian swords, the metal nearest the hilt is homogeneous steel with the PW or wootz steel the other piece. One practical rationale for scarf welding is to conserve on material. To forge an entire billet from wootz requires a lot more material than what is needed in a scarf weld. In this case, you don't seem to have that thought so it becomes a bit more mysterious as to why this one was done.

Very interesting and I truly love surprises like this that can pop out from a good clean and etch!

[Sajen]

Here is a thread about keris panjang with a very similar construction known as kapit construction: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...hlight=panjang