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Originally Posted by ariel
New arrival: tulwar with absolutely crappy short (-ened?) blade made out of soft and rusty iron. The edge has more rolls than Africa has tse-tse flies. Out of curiosity I polished and etched a section: no pattern at all. It is poorly secured in the handle with some tar ( not the traditional mastique). Summary: junk.
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Hello Ariel,
I'm far away from being an expert as Jens, so I sadly cannot add something important.
I only have a question, are you sure about the low quality of the steel?
A poor blade would produce cracks or breakouts if it hits something like dry bone or iron. Small(!) rolls are normally a sign for an overstrained edge of good quality. If the blade has been made from poor iron, it would bend during contact and it is almost impossible to straighten it out perfectly, because of tensions in the metal. If there are no bendings, I dont believe in poor iron.
The widened ricasso reminds me in older Indian blades. The Japanese like point looks strange, perhaps the blade was shortened during its active time.
No pattern is also strange for an old blade. These blades are often scarf welded, so it would make sense, to polish a window close to the hilt.
I have one scarf welded Tulwar with the front section made from fine laminated monosteel. It is very difficult to impossible to bring out the forging pattern. This depends on the number of layers. The more layers, the more difficult it is. If your Tulwar was folded more than 18-20 times, it is impossible to bring out the structure with an etchant!
You also can sharpen two or three inches of the edge and see how sharp you can make it and how sensitive the edge is, in sense of how it reacts to rough and fine sandpaper or waterstone. But this is more for quite experienced users.
Best wishes,
Roland