Kaskara opinion

[Edster]

Iain,

My only knowledge of cast kaskara blades is a comment from an informant at the sword makers market in Kassala in 1985. He said that during the Mahdiya most native made blades were cast and very brittle, often breaking in battle. Many warriors carried wooden swords and picked up weapons of the fallen. Such cast blades may have been regalia and not suited for battle. A lot of swords were picked up from defeated Anglo-Egyptian armies. Also, hand forged iron blades were made from locally refined iron ore. I'm unaware of the extent and time frames that steel metallurgy was practiced by local Sahel blade smiths. Surely not all battle blades were imported from the 16th-18th centuries or recirculated as battlefield pick-ups. How did the Funj army of Sennar source its swords? So many questions.

I notice on your linked Takouba that the half-moon was added after the etching. Perhaps the subject kaskara is a re-hilted takouba as suggested by the blade profile.

Take care,
Ed