18th Century Katar?
 

Got this in a trade my friend said it is circa 18th century. It has some strange koftgari? Comments welcome :). The scabbard is newly made.

Gorgeous blade, Lew! Nice newly made sheath. The koftgari is indeed an interesting pattern. Beautiful! Thanks for sharing!

Nice piece. Judging from the condition of coftgari I would suspect this katar being later than 18th century.

Stan

That's was my feeling 1780-90s as far as age goes?

That is 18th century Lew.

Spiral

How can you tell?

The style of the blade the koftgari makes me think late 18th century to early 19th century. Jens can give me a better idea of its age since this is his area of collecting.

Beautiful piece! Anyone consider the koftgari could be a recent addition?

Lew states it is 1780s to 1790s. So assuming thats correct it is 18th century.

After all the 18th century runs from 1700 to 1799.

Spiral

I had thought did run through my mind but I noticed at the top of the side bar there is a patch of old corrosion that has eaten away the metal under the koftgari :shrug:.

I only hope that one day I can be as knowledgeable as you.

Hi Lew,

It’s a nice katar you have, and I find you are on the save side when you say 18th century.

I have one decorated in the same style – in panels, although the decoration is quite different, and I can’t recall to have seen a decoration on a katar like the one on yours. This doesn’t, of course, mean anything, as there are so many different decorations, both standard and individual ones, so there will always be ‘new’ decorations even if the katar is old :D.

technically the 18th century ran from 1701-1800, 19th from 1801-1900, 20th from 1901-2000. ad nauseum. ;)

a pretty katar in any century.

Nice looking katar and the wootz pattern on the blade is bold and I think should clean up nicely. There is something about the color of the steel between the koftgari decorations that makes me wonder if the handle is also wootz. You may want to do a light etch in those areas to see.

Funny you should mention the possibility of the side guards being of wootz, as I had the same feeling, but did not mention it as I have not etched the side guards on my katar. The first question would be, 'have you etched your side guards? Why not?'

I thought about etching them but I don't really want to mess with it since I don't know what effect it will have on the gold koftgari? I do have other katar where the side bars are wootz. There is a weld from the half way point down where they finished off with some other type of steel.

ahh yes indeed so! Good correction! ;)


Spiral