Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - Identifying this sword ? (please take a look)

Philip · 31st October 2006, 06:59 AM

The leather covering and its stitching on this specimen looks new, based on its style and the rather smooth and clean condition of the surface. Antique scabbards from this part of the Middle East (Arabian Peninsula, and the Ottoman Empire) are typically covered with a type of leather with a granular, bumpy texture to it (the hide is usually from the donkey), the seam stitched with fine brass or silver wire in tight coils.

My experience with these Zanzibar sabers is that the seam is frequently glued. On the better examples, the leather is quite thin, and is carefully tooled to conform to delicate ribbing and other designs incised into the wooden scabbard body.

31st October 2006, 06:59 AM	#13
Philip Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: California Posts: 1,036	scabbard stitching The leather covering and its stitching on this specimen looks new, based on its style and the rather smooth and clean condition of the surface. Antique scabbards from this part of the Middle East (Arabian Peninsula, and the Ottoman Empire) are typically covered with a type of leather with a granular, bumpy texture to it (the hide is usually from the donkey), the seam stitched with fine brass or silver wire in tight coils. My experience with these Zanzibar sabers is that the seam is frequently glued. On the better examples, the leather is quite thin, and is carefully tooled to conform to delicate ribbing and other designs incised into the wooden scabbard body.