dont see these everyday.........
 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=290259351025



love these "tegha" style of heavy blades, not sure theyd be good in hand to hand combat though? one good blow would be fatal i imagine though.

Very Nice
 

Very nice piece, I hope Charles can tell us all more about this paticular piece if time permits.

Pretty effective against the back of your neck if you were kneeling I'd think!

:eek:

I may be a little suspicious but the 'forged welded' pattern looks very similar to 'modern' blades freely available from India today. The rivet on the 're-inforcing plate' seems crude ....and perhaps recently done :shrug:

A recent marriage with older Khanda hilts :shrug:

Regards David

I too have worries about this piece. I do not like it. I did not want to be the first to suuggest it may not be what it appears. :o

I disagree that this is a newly made blade married with an older hilt. I think both are antique components but could have not been "born together" but there does seem to be a reasonable amount of patina around the section mounted to the blade. The pattern of the blade is a common one found in antique Indian blades it just seems to have received an aggressive etching in recent times and probably needs to be toned down just a hair. The blade also has the eyelash marks which do not seem to be modern stamps. My vote is for an antique blade and hilt that probably was put together in the 19th century.

Agree w Rick blade tapers at forte a little maybe original hilting. Graphic in first image makes it look silly other images tell it better. Charles when you get it let us know how it feels in hand?

It is possible that the handle wrap was put on after acid cleaning. I do hope it is all that is expected but I still have doubts. :o

There is something about the cloth wrap that reminds of a friends acid treated kilims. Done to achieve a faded look on new stuff to appeal to females. This does look like it has been in a mild bath. The forte parts are so clean and crisp with so little dirt or rust underneath.

Everything looks original to me. I noticed that steel where the blade attachs to the hilt is also pattern welded. The green wrap is old 19th century. Charles if it upsets you in any way that this is not original please feel free to send it to me I think I can handle the disappointment ;) :rolleyes: :D


Congrats

Lew

Agreed, that the blade could be older than I originally thought, but the 'extreme' etch gives the impression that the patterning is 'raised'.

After, re-viewing the pictures I have made various observations, I am not saying that my deductions are correct but feel they should be mentioned so that they can be discussed in a 'learning environment'.

I do think that blade and hilt may have been 'mated' more recently than the 19th C .
When two layers of steel are placed together, rust seems to develop more readily ( I think it is due to an electrolytic action and the 'trapping' of dirt and moisture). This is shown on the picture of the hilt below, where the 'cross piece' meets the guard) However there is no real corrosion where the blade and 're-inforcing' plate meet. The edges of the decorative area of the 'plate' seems to be very crisp.
The rivet is not peened over very neatly, the deeper 'depressions' would harbour rust...but they seem clean. The rivet has slight gaps between 'it' and the plate ...still there is very little corrosion or dirt, which would collect there. Also part of the rivet's edge is slightly 'burred' over, as this 'part' of the rivet would be thin and 'exposed' you would expect it to have corroded away(if done 100 years or so ago)

The 'patina' on the blade (surrounding the re-inforcing plate) is almost uniformly the same colour and is translucent....you can see the 'patterning' through it. Old patina would be created by corrosion which would not be uniformly translucent. It looks as if the blade was overly etched, somehow 'knocked back' (with a salt and vinegar solution :shrug: ) mounted onto the Khanda hilt and then cleaned. I also think the hilt was cleaned prior to the re-mount ...as the edges of the re-inforcing plate are very clean yet the blade next to it is not.
The eyelash markings and the dots seem to be made by a small triangular stamp and a round one, as opposed to a 'complete' eyelash stamp...as neither are perfect copies of the other. Whether this is relavent to 'age', I do not know :shrug:


Regards David