Old mamluk style hilt and mounts

[kronckew]

Originally Posted by francantolin

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Does anybody know how they fixed the blade in ?
With resin-lead or other stuff like they made for talwar per example ?
Or was it just made for gala-representation and not fixed at all ?

If fixed like on tulwars, how could they remove it without heating damage ??

Kind regards

I recently wanted to reset a curved short sword with a red bronze rams head hilt that was a tad crooked, I put the hilt in a plastic bag and submerged the bagged hilt in boiling water. on heating the hilt got loose quickly and came off easily. The 'glue' appeared to be a tree resin beeswax mix along with some fibrous material (dry horse dung?) and some brick dust. It smelled. To fill the void better I added a bit of brick dust I reset the hilt and held it in place with the grip vertical and the blade held in alignment above it - with a bit of bodging - until it cooled. Took a fair while too. The blades have been cleaned and polished since. How they survive being stuck together during Indian summers I do not know.

see also http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...war+hilt+resin

p.s.- yours could also be a horse head, looks like a hint of a bridle. At first I thought it could be a lion's head. It;s a bit like this Brit band sword hilt I found googling.