Can you guys elaborate more on 'lap welds'? Are these typically used in repair circumstances or would they have been used in primary construction of blades as well? I can only think of an instance in a M1796 heavy cavalry sword (one of my first swords back in the 60s) where the blade was welded in a dovetail type pattern about dead center, as if it was once broken. Would a blade so welded be subject to breakage again most likely?
On the markings Iain, while I have never seen this configuration before, it does seem consistant with cosmological preference in markings on North African blades in many cases. For example, on kaskaras some of the so called lohr panels using phases of the moon. The placement in this area of the blade does seem aligned with that of other marks on kaskara blades but such markings seem unusual on takoubas. It would seem that this blade would be from sources other than the typically seen blade sources with the triple fuller blades with dukari moons.,
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