Sheikh Nasir Al-Sufayyan, Abu Bandar, an old man with 50 years of expertise at hand, in the field of swords, jambiyas, and spears, and in general, anything traditional. He is a very old man, a person who knows how things were done, and the names of things 'back then', a true historian and knowledgebase, in the field of arab history and culture. He works in silver, gold, welding, and everything related in the job of swordsmithing, except making the blade itself. His reason for that, is that it isnt worth the effort, costs, and time making a blade, when the market for newly made blades is low, and most people keep swords passed down from generations, and maintain them from time to time. When I first went into his workshop, there was this african chap, who came to collect two Ethiopian military sabers which Nasir himself had repeened, and re-installed the leather covering the wooden hilt. Even the repeen job was traditional, he had ground down the brass hilt, heated the tang, and pounded it hard to secure the hilt, which was loose to start with. Another man showed him an omani jambiya, with beautiful silver nails hammered into the hilt, he complimented on the silverwork, when the man told him that this was his work himself, that he did some years ago. I tell you, this man can do anything. He told me that he had started learning this trade when he was 8, he used to live next to a swordsmith, and would go down to meet him daily, and help him in his work, until he became one, at a time when there were 9 swordsmiths in Riyadh, now, he's the only one left, and he hasnt prepared his heir
. He refused to start any conversation with him, before sitting down and having a cup of coffee, and before I left, I had to have dinner with him at his house as an obligation, when he had learnt that I had come to him from an other country.
His magnifying glass, with which he identifies giraffe, from rhino, from cattle horn, and between ivory and bone
A huge omani jambiya, for display only
