Ian,
Battara and Oliver thanks for your interest and support. Ian, thanks for the abstract. High tech non-destructive testing offers promise, but as you observe, it is not readily available. I wonder if we could recruit a university materials science lab to help with testing, maybe at Timonium one year.
My chief interest is the ID and dating of European vs native made kaskara. European makers marks are not always diagnostic since native smiths often replicate them. Forging skills would be more or less the same in both places since just a trip-wheel hammer wouldn't make a real qualitative difference. (Generally, machines require less technical skill than a master manual blade smith possess.) With the use of lorry spring steels for native made blades, I assume that native blades would be of more or less the same chemical composition since say 1920s. Also, I suspect that the forging and heat treating processes/techniques in Kassala, Sudan were the same in 1880s as they were in 1986 and probably today and in 1600 Sennar for that matter. I have some dated from the 20s and 80s and can't really tell the age difference by blade appearance and bending quality alone. Some older ones seem better quality than some newer ones, but this is probably based on individual smith skills rather than anything else.
But what is the composition of various European factory-made trade blades? Probably a range of steels available commercially at any time or place. What is diagnostic?
We need a bigger data base and hopefully non-destructive testing can help us create one.
Regards,
Ed
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