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Originally Posted by TribalBlades
I personally believe there is no such thing as a Bedouin Sword (except the Omani / Yemeni Kattara and the Saif). Bedu hardly used Swords for warfare. They almost always relied on Rifles and Guns. (except perhaps swords that date from before the arrival of the british and other colonizing forces).
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aaaand thats wrong :-) the saif is well used by bedouin communities (well not as much as spears..) but they are there and there are particular styles but one thing noticed is that they rarely make any blades and most of the fittings are actually done in cities. This has to do with the bedouin tradition and mentality which looks upon physical work as some sort of insult.
As for the sword with Stu. I originally owned this one and there are honest sign of wear on the fittings of the blade. Things that are very difficult (and pointless to make) to do so it doesnt seem right that these were made to sell to tourists. The blade is nice, thick and I remember it was sharpened. The blade was thicker then any of my wootz shamshirs and was alittle less thick then a European blade on a nimcha (which I sold along with this one) so its a serious blade and the mounts were holding strong on it. The wood of the scabbard had signs of wear near the throat so is the leather there. as you can see, the bronze (?) lines on the top of the scabbard have losses that are done due to loss with time I doubt people selling to tourist will have so much interest in details or a need to actually do such damage.
Stuff made for tourists generally contain lots of 'flash' and go for the cheapest and quickest material available and rarely have signs of wear. Keep in mind that the said Yemenis who supposedly produce these are also producing the jambiyas we see in the tourist market, how many do you see which are deliberately made to look older? rarely if ever done purposefully.
Ibrahim is correct on one thing which I ignored as a variation before, while I find some of these with the one similar to Stu's I also find ones with slim blades and scabbards that look very new. One of the interesting things about those is that they are often precieved as ugly and rarely ever sell to anyone so am not sure how they classify as tourist items.
included are photos of the saif pre restoration.