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Old 13th February 2012, 02:58 PM   #25
Jim McDougall
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Route 66
Posts: 9,719
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick
I don't know, Jim; I have a very flexible fine grained wootz Indian sabre at hand here in the armory; almost a straight blade .

They were not all bad .

Good call Rick, and I hoped my comment didnt sound too 'inflexible' (pun intended) by qualifying the word 'some' with regard to Indian blades. I hope I can find the reference concerning this dilemma, may have been either Pant or Elgood. There was a quote included regarding the Indian favor of 'firangi' blades resulting in the large volume of them coming into Indian regions which included the disdain for British blades claiming they were 'unfit to cut even butter with'. Apparantly whatever issues were at hand with Indian blades was resolved and actually it does seem that in most times they were held in extremely high esteem, especially in Arabia where the flex of a blade was a keenly observed feature. There are of course blades in India which indeed were even wrapped around ones body almost as a belt.

You have some great stuff in that 'armoury' of yours!!!

All the best,
Jim
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