presentation & Wootz katar
 

hey all

I am new here, and would like to introduce myself. As many of you, the childhood fascination for edged stuff stayed. I am now a parttime knifemaker and collect various edged tools. At the moment I do not have a peculiar interest: I like knives with a nice (his)story. In my collection, one can find recent handmade knives, old pocket knives, african and indian weapons, ...

Last week I obtained an old Katar from an antiques dealer in Brussels. It looked old and dirty, but the quality of the blade (geometry, sharpness) made me decide to buy the knife. After a carefull cleaning and etching the following beauty came out:

http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/2328/katar1.jpg

http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/4493/katar2.jpg


All info involving age / origin of the katar are more than welcome.

Enjoy

Tim

Hi Tim,

Welcome to the forum and thank you for sharing a nice wootz bladed katar. The wootz pattern is very nice and looks nice and consistent throughout. Dating katars can be difficult because stylistically they cover a long period of time. My gut on this one from the picture is probably early to mid 19th century. Specific regional attribution can be difficult and I don't see any distinguishing features in this example to help me with that but perhaps someone else can.

WELCOME TO THE FORUM :) IT IS ALWAYS FUN TO TAKE A CHANCE ON AN ITEM AND FIND IT IS EVEN BETTER THAN YOU THOUGHT. THIS KATAR IS ONE SUCH ITEM NICE FIND. :cool:

Congrats! That's one of the most attractively contrasting and consistent wootz katar blades I have seen. Often the wootz on these is crystalline damascus of low contrast, and with "cloudy" areas in the wootz.

Nice find!

Hi Tim

That is a real nice example my guess is 1835-50 probably from Rajasthan it seems that some of the Persian wootz ingots made their way back to that area. I have a katar with a high contrast wootz pattern also but it is the only one I have seen until now.

Congrats and welcome to the forum.

Lew

Hi Tim,

Great find. I cannot comment on the katar's shape or style, but, I think you can
make a case for it being 100 years earlier by the wootz. That high pattern activity with such vivid contrast suggests 18th century to me. 19th century wootz usually has more stripes and less activity, ultimately leading to the broken up "match stick" appearances.
I got to get a list of shops from you next time I head to Europe.

All the Best
Jeff

Thanks for all the feedback. Must admit i felt pretty happy when the wootz pattern popped out. As for the list of shops: no problem. By the way: paid 130 € for the piece (which is an ok price for a wootz katar).

Its a beauty. My guess would also be later 18th C. But there are members with very similar Katars who will doubtless be along presently to 'nail it down'.

Lew.
Aren't the Rajasthan Katars characterised by grip bars with central bulges that are wider than the side bars? Would this still count as Rajasthan type with its 'slimmer' grips?