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Old 4th May 2011, 06:53 PM   #22
Ibrahiim al Balooshi
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Buraimi Oman, on the border with the UAE
Posts: 4,408
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Quote:
Originally Posted by archer
I was going to venture a guess that Since these pommels are of different sizes as are the holes. Could they simply be a fine tuning of the swords balance?

I just purchased one(Omani?) this evening that has a round brass pommel The seller says hilt has original cloth binding. The scabbard is a basket case. Question is what about the round and brass pommel? Thanks, Steve
P.s. Its coming from UK, so it will be awhile.
ref. fine tuning; Nice idea.. I already thought about that but its a no. There would certainly be some written material to back up a weights and measurement concept like that.... I wish it was that easy. In my opinion we are probably right on the edge of having lost the absolute truth of this conundrum though the general consensus is that it is a hole for a wrist strap... even amongst the old sword makers they think it was for the sword wrist strap but... their thought is that it is to stop it falling from the hand whilst dancing... It is an interesting choice of words. Not fighting~ dancing. This means that in their life time it is the dancing which takes precedence... whilst I would wager the same question asked say 80 or 150 years ago the answer would be to stop the sword falling whilst fighting. The link is... that dancing was a form of exercise, warm up, martial drill if you like before going into battle therefor we in our wisdom can do a bit of logical manouvre yes?... So its a wrist strap. Insofar as I can tell it seems to have fallen into disuse. Now I am a great believer in the original Omani Short Battlesword as being completely unique to Oman and as a matter of interest it does have a wrist strap hole at the top of the handle the lower two being for rivets to hold the tang/hilt assembly together and it is not without possibility that a hole in the pommel on the Omani Kattara sprang from that idea though... I have no proof !
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