Another What Have We Here

tom hyle · 15th May 2005, 06:40 PM

The long ferule does look like a feature common on Arabian (per se) saifs, but are those not usually wire wraps? And do they not ordinarily have narrower grips? Does one see iron tang bands and overlays in Arabia? I think only brass or silver are usual? They are seen in iron in both Afghanistan and Caucases. Also, I have seen a similar feature at least once on an Afghan sword. The pommel shape is one I see a lot on knives from E European Moslems, but I have indeed also seen a similar shape on a type of variant kodme or flyssa. The shape as I've seen it on them is more angular, but otherwise similar, but this is identical to the European ones to my memory. It is possible it is a N African sword, or even Arabian, though that seems "off" to me; just not that it is a "nimcha", or, I think, any part of one. I still think it is E European etc. I do not see any indication that the grip is reworked. I think....?.....I don't know if the guards like this are trackable for region (though I'm trying to find out). If it had super skinny lagnets with parrabolic sides that'd be pretty Arabian. If it had diamond-section ridge lines to lagnets and quillons, that'd be pretty African. But this particular variety of the cross-shaped guard with shortish triangular lagnets seems fairly region-neutral for any markers I know what they mean; not to say it can't be IDd by the guard; but it's not helping me much. The square quillons may indeed be a mark for Arabia; I'd like to hear what Radu and Wolviex think of that though; they both seem to have seen a lot of European ones....

15th May 2005, 06:40 PM	#11
tom hyle Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Houston, TX, USA Posts: 1,254	The long ferule does look like a feature common on Arabian (per se) saifs, but are those not usually wire wraps? And do they not ordinarily have narrower grips? Does one see iron tang bands and overlays in Arabia? I think only brass or silver are usual? They are seen in iron in both Afghanistan and Caucases. Also, I have seen a similar feature at least once on an Afghan sword. The pommel shape is one I see a lot on knives from E European Moslems, but I have indeed also seen a similar shape on a type of variant kodme or flyssa. The shape as I've seen it on them is more angular, but otherwise similar, but this is identical to the European ones to my memory. It is possible it is a N African sword, or even Arabian, though that seems "off" to me; just not that it is a "nimcha", or, I think, any part of one. I still think it is E European etc. I do not see any indication that the grip is reworked. I think....?.....I don't know if the guards like this are trackable for region (though I'm trying to find out). If it had super skinny lagnets with parrabolic sides that'd be pretty Arabian. If it had diamond-section ridge lines to lagnets and quillons, that'd be pretty African. But this particular variety of the cross-shaped guard with shortish triangular lagnets seems fairly region-neutral for any markers I know what they mean; not to say it can't be IDd by the guard; but it's not helping me much. The square quillons may indeed be a mark for Arabia; I'd like to hear what Radu and Wolviex think of that though; they both seem to have seen a lot of European ones....