Sword (African?)

[Joe1475]

I picked this up awhile back and it was unsure at the time and after reviewing some threads, it may possibly be African?

[Edster]

Joel,

To me it looks like a native-made Kaskara blade. Cross guard appears to be of kaskara style, but the bottom langet has been ground off. The wire grip and pommel were added to give additional style. Unfortunately, it appears to me to be a fairly recent made-up sword.

Regards,
Ed

[Jim McDougall]

Totally agree, actually a nice Sudanese blade with good 'dukari' moons, and the crossguard which unfortunately has lost the langet.

At the best, this could be one of the many kaskara 'bringbacks' from the Sudanese campaigns, which well through the century suffered being dismantled to create 'crusader' or medieval swords, whether for parlor display or theatrical purposes. At worst a more modern creation using authentic kaskara for either same or trying to 'restore' the hilt. With the absence of the langet, I am inclined to think the crusader sword notion most likely.

Oakeshott spoke of this in his books lamenting the number of good kaskara that were lost to this 'enterprise', to create faux crusader swords pursuant to the well published notion that the natives in North Africa were using actual crusader swords.

[David R]

Saw a lot like this back in the "earlies" of reenactment, and still happening recently. :(