kaskara sword travelling through Sahara
 

Hello dear members,

I wanted to show you this kaskara sword,
It was a long time I tried to get one.

I think it is a sudanese 'model'' with his silver hilt and tassel.
it was bought to a Tuareg nomad in 1973 in south Algeria.

The scabbard seems not old,

The blade is interesting, flexible and ''springs'' when we hit it.
Oakeshott X type ,

Good local ''imitation'' blade ( made in Sudan ?? )
or an old european ? ( but without ricasso...)

Exceptional Kaskara. The grip is of the Hadendawa style and the cross guard is called Sennar, both likely from the Kassala sword market in Eastern Sudan. The blade is pattern welded (? is that the term), but the wide & deep finely made fuller isn't a Kassala or even Sudan style.The blade was likely crafted in Ethiopia. Interesting that it was trafficed to the Tuareg without any cultural related changes. Perhaps a memento.

Best,
Ed

Thank's a lot for your reply Ed !
I don't really know if the blade is pattern welded but we can see an interesting steel structure and succesive sharpenings when I zoom with my camera

Here a picture of the majestic and friendly Tuareg who previously owned the sword,
He was walking with his dromedarys ($) between Djanet and the Tassili,
close to Libya and Niger frontiers.

You can get a similar pattern from a water quench of a variety of steels, not just pattern welded. Nice sword and a good and high class example of the type.

A fine example.

I have one very similar with the unusual blade profile.

Very interesting that it was found so far west.

I have one with a similar blade as well, as seen below (although that is not my foot! :D).

Thank you all for your messages and really nice model Werecow 🙂

Can we say that these blades were made in Ethiopia or South Soudan ?
Really flexibles, well balanced and sharp...

For the west area of the kaskara,
I know that that most/all tuaregs have takoubas but
I wanted to add that I saw years ago ''many'' black tuaregs in Tamanrasset walking with their kaskara on their side, fixed on a belt with baldric not on the shoulder.,
The final tip of the scabbard almost on the ground.
sign of prestige/importance ?
It was in 2002, the local guide told me these tuaregs came from Mali .( really close)
Interesting ( a thought ),the scabbard of the kaskara looks like the malian mandingo's swords.
In Tamanrasset, they were kaskaras, long straights swords with large cross guard.
Sadly no.pictures...

Takouba, clearly the Tuareg sword
( here I have the picture 🙂 )

Ethiopia maybe, but likely not South Soudan as they didn't make broadswords.

Your and Werecow's swords are virtually identical and could have been made in the same smithy. It would be interesting to compare dimensions.

The Ethiopian origin is only a guess. They had the sword making talent & skills and a my Kassala informant 1985 said they specialized in wide channeled fullers on broadswords. (Also, to my knowledge wide fullered blades were not typically included as 19 C. European trade blades.) Even though they preferred curved blades and bought finished single edged swords from England among others.

The blades could have been battlefield pick-ups from the Battle of Gallabat, March 1889, and redressed into Hadendawa kaskaras.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gallabat

Best,
Ed