Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

tom hyle · 9th May 2005, 05:56 PM

It is my impression that the kaskara usually has both upper and lower lagnets, and that the upper lagnet is typically uder the handle wrap, somewhat as seen in Arabia. Perhaps I have seen an atypical sampling. But as to the construction of the kaskara guard, is it hollow enough to take some of the handle material and serve as a ferule, like a Tukish one, or is it pierced only for the tang?
The shape of takouba blades is really interesting, with the wide long-ricassoish base of the blade, and the rest tapering to the narrow, round tip......
Proof can really get in the way someimes though. For example, I remember an Ethiopian sword with typical horn hilt, and with a straight, springy, double-edged blade with a fairly (but not sabrishly) wide groove running out the tip and into the hilt. Its surface was unmarked save by the wear of many polishings and sharpenings. It seemed to show layered steel. This could be a medieval European sword, and why not? As I've mentioned before I've heard and read that one could buy them in England and Germany for around $50 fairly routinely up into the early 1970s, even, and they were liable to be considered "old junk". But there is no proof, of course. Of course. How could there be? What would prove it? What could possibly prove it? Destructive dating tests on the steel?.......So in the setting of unprovable concepts, what use is the idea of proof?
As to the nonuse of metal and/or swords in Africa from early times, I believe that this is history that may be getting revised as we write.....

9th May 2005, 05:56 PM	#3
tom hyle Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Houston, TX, USA Posts: 1,254	It is my impression that the kaskara usually has both upper and lower lagnets, and that the upper lagnet is typically uder the handle wrap, somewhat as seen in Arabia. Perhaps I have seen an atypical sampling. But as to the construction of the kaskara guard, is it hollow enough to take some of the handle material and serve as a ferule, like a Tukish one, or is it pierced only for the tang? The shape of takouba blades is really interesting, with the wide long-ricassoish base of the blade, and the rest tapering to the narrow, round tip...... Proof can really get in the way someimes though. For example, I remember an Ethiopian sword with typical horn hilt, and with a straight, springy, double-edged blade with a fairly (but not sabrishly) wide groove running out the tip and into the hilt. Its surface was unmarked save by the wear of many polishings and sharpenings. It seemed to show layered steel. This could be a medieval European sword, and why not? As I've mentioned before I've heard and read that one could buy them in England and Germany for around $50 fairly routinely up into the early 1970s, even, and they were liable to be considered "old junk". But there is no proof, of course. Of course. How could there be? What would prove it? What could possibly prove it? Destructive dating tests on the steel?.......So in the setting of unprovable concepts, what use is the idea of proof? As to the nonuse of metal and/or swords in Africa from early times, I believe that this is history that may be getting revised as we write.....