[Iain]

Originally Posted by laEspadaAncha

Salaams Ibrahiim,

While the Industrial Revolution may not have begun until the latter half of the 18th century, industrialization of the (sword manufacturing) process had (as I understand it) been occurring in Solingen since the 16th century. The use of (water driven) mechanical hammers allowed for a rate of production significantly greater than traditional hammer forging methods had allowed. There was indeed a significant industry (and thus industrial presence) in place in Solingen in the 17th century producing large quantities of swords.

Jim, thank you (yet again!) for taking the time to share your knowledge. The picture you draw of the extensive (and intertwined) networks of trade is demonstrative of how pervasive trade - and the influence it brings - has always been...

Exactly - by the 16th century water powered hammers and grinders were in use in Solingen. The town was ideally situated with access to local iron ore deposits, vast forests for the necessary charcoal production and the water power necessary to allow for quick forging and manufacture.

A water powered hammer at the time was roughly 5 times faster than hand forging a blade. Typically blades were rough forged by the mechanical hammers and then hand finished using water powered grinders.

This was exponentially faster than the techniques used even in most other areas of Europe at the time. As a result Solingen items were produced at a highly uniform quality for a very competitive price.

These three natural resources of ore, wood and water are not commonly found together in the Sahel or the Mid East. As such steel and the resulting products, were by necessity more expensive in the local economies because the effort and resource consumption relative to local supply (particularly wood) was much higher than the relative consumption in Solingen.

So to put it quite simply, semi industrialized blade production was already happening in Solingen by the 16th century.

Ibrahiim,

I personally have not studied kattara in sufficient detail to show you a list of European blades that I've closely researched, however a quick Google search soon turns up some leads you can follow up on. Keep in mind the running wolf originated in Passau but was widely used in Solingen as well.

http://therionarms.com/sold/ttoy279.html A correspondent to Therion mentioned dated Portuguese blades in his collection.

Here a sale record for a sword with a running wolf - http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedi...-kattara-sword

Here another with a basic running wolf - http://www.oriental-arms.com/photos.php?id=1971

Here is yet another - http://www.swordforum.com/forums/sho...is-a-good-deal

Here is another sales record for one - http://www.antiq.cz/aukce/m-n/katalog6-98/en/528.html

Finally I stumbled on this old style kattara you might find interesting due to the Arabic inscription (obviously a local blade I just figured I'd post it here before I forgot the link!) - http://www.trocadero.com/101antiques...7179store.html

Even if one or two of these blades are locally produced, why are they applying a wolf stamp stamp copied from Solingen/Passau? The evidence for trade blades is simply unavoidable and is backed up by historical accounts like Fraser.

Just as a final note, and I don't want to get into a lot of detail here since it's not my area and I find your research quite interesting. But in terms of presenting dates and research regarding the old form kattara... You have a compelling and very well thought out theory for how this style of sword entered Oman, but at the same time your heavy use of the 751 date gives an impression that you believe absolutely nothing did change stylistically in over 1000 years (as the sword remains in use until the 18th century) - I'm not sure if that is how you mean to present it or not? I'm simply urging caution here as your enthusiasm for this date I think can be misleading to readers. Certainly the old style swords that are typically encountered I think we would all agree are not 8th century artifacts. Still I think you've done an excellent job putting together a probable timeline for the old style sword so please take this as a constructive comment, I'm just the type of person who is very cautious when it comes to presenting dating theories over such a long period without physical evidence to account for the time in between.

All the best and keep up your research,

Iain