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Originally Posted by SwordsAntiqueWeapons
Thanks again for reinforcing the points I and others dispute.
Please show me a long handled stiff bladed Souk sword in complete antique dress in your hand...inlaid iron fittings or very high quality gold or silver fittings, ribbon wire threaded hilts etc, being the type I have handled.
To date I have not seen a single image presented worthy of any quality craftmanship even close to that os antiquity.
Gavin
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Salaams~
But why would I seek out such a modern cross hilt...stiff bladed?? You mean an Ethiopian blade..... I'm not due in Muscat Souk for a few months...I have handled lots in Muttrah. see
http://www.klm-mra.be/icomam/downloads/issue07.pdf where on page 89 you can see some swords several of which are rehilts ... The chap with the beard is a silver master in his own right... He did the cross hilts...like his father from 1970 onwards... I recall seeing and handling these and they were stiff blades. He told me he got them from Salalah and they got them from Sanaa from Ethiopia... One of them was marked Solingen. I believe I have pictured that somewhere...checking....oh yes on Kattara for Comments where I show some of the same swords as per the above reference from icoman...
What I do know is that the quite heavy iron and sometimes silver inlaid scabbard furniture comes from Omani Battle Sword Scabbards...but where a sword is to be used for its correct purpose (pageants) it has to be flexible or it will not buzz...That has always been the case. The stiff blades are not another type ... they are rehilts from Ethiopian blades. etc etc. and Omani people do not buy them... because they arent right...too stiff...Tourist Blades ...
Like the one in your collection?
Here is Tipu Tip with a 19th C Omani dancing sword ...The Straight Omani Saif... with heavy duty Furniture to the scabbard...and in the classic style ...
To raise the price of the tourist variants ...(those blades brought from Ethiopia mainly from 1970 onwards), craftsmen copied this style exactly...adding the long hilt and scabbard complete from Omani style.
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.