[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by Edster

Opps, double post. Sorry.

Stephen & Sander. Great rare blades that have both the steel supplier and machinery mfg. stamped on the blades.

As Stephen notes, Platt Bros. were the world's largest producer cotton processing machinery. Sudan exported much/most of the cotton produced on the Gezira Scheme south of Khartoum. Pratt likely exported machinery to the cotton industry in Sudan. My guess is that each blade was originally a blade of a cotton bale cutter or similar device. Stephen's had the traditional three fullers added locally. Sander's has no fullers and was apparently repurposed into a kaskara with little more than producing a second edge. Both swords have the chisel style cross-guards fashionable in Sennar. Sennar dam was built in 1926 to provide irrigation water to the Gerzira Scheme. This could date the swords to circa 1930.

Best regards,
Ed

Salaams Ed, Thoroughly good research Sir...I enjoyed that...
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi