Old Omani Saif

[A.alnakkas]

Originally Posted by ariel

The handle sports new rivets. The implications are obvious.

Re- use of parts is virtually expected in case of old “Oriental” swords: they utilized parts of organic nature. But wood shrinks or rots, mastique dries and crumbles, bone cracks and breaks.

I do not think it might be possible to pinpoint the age of restoration of this sword short of full disassembling it . But the good thing is that all components look very old.

As mentioned, these are still valued in Oman and go through many restorations and even are fitted with new silver parts to sort of make them presentation worthy. The rivets while in appearance seem 'new' are not negative indications.

I have no information about how old is the blade, the wootz is clear and the condition does not suggest a newly made blade. Nor does a mismatched patina between handle and blade suggest much... how many shamshirs are there with excellent polished blades and pitted quillons? we all know why.

Teodor, nice sword! it is called saif Yamani and saif Ya'rubi as well by Omanis in an effort to try to pinpoint its origin.