Hi Brian,
Compliments on your new aquisition. The question of scissor katars had been discussed on this and other forums in length. General consensus points at these not being designed for fighting. However, it is possible the original prototype was intended as a sword catcher of sorts. I have never seen one of the functional examples but perhaps someone else had?
While a scissor katar looks like it has 3 blades. 2 of which are spring loaded like a switchback knife, in reality (and as evident from your example), pivoting “blades” are just a type of a steel scabbard. They are not designed for cutting/thrusting and would greatly interfere with the functionality of the center blade if someone chose to use the weapon for its intended purpose. Besides, the central blade on most examples is made of some low quality alloy, which is sometimes etched to resemble wootz steel.
With this being said, scissor katars are still manufactured in India for the tourist trade. And they originally came to be in the late 19th century to serve the same niche market, which at the time was mostly British military men stationed in India or wealthy westerners visiting the country and wanting an “authentic” souvenir. Your katar appears to be just that: it is clearly not newly made and is probably around 75-125 years old.
Is the spring mechanism still functional in your katar? Its actually not in that bad of a condition for it’s age and should clean up nicely.
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