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19th June 2012, 07:30 PM
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#1 | |
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Member
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 41
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How to Re-seat Omani Khanjar Blade in Hilt?
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I recently purchased a beautiful Omani Khanjar, only to have the blade promptly fall out the moment I unsheathed it. Apparently, the resin or lakk has become brittle over time, and cracked. When the blade dropped out, chunks of the resin and powdery crumbs came showering down. My question: How best can I re-seat this blade into the hilt? I cannot afford to import insect resin from Pakistan, so I was thinking a good, solid resin-based epoxy glue might be OK. (I'm trying to stay authentic on this). Also, what's the best cleaning agent for the exterior trim on the scabbard? Mine is quite tarnished or dirty, not at all like the photos on e-____ where I bought it. Thank you for your time and help on this. Sincerely, John Fogarty novelsrus@indy.rr.com |
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22nd June 2012, 06:23 AM
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#2 | |
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Buraimi Oman, on the border with the UAE
Posts: 4,408
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Quote:
Salaams NovelsRus ~ That happens a lot as the lac dries out. Use epoxy as you say... I see no problem with that . Some people even use tar off the road ! Naturally we use the proper pucker lac but frankly you will get a better fix with epoxy. The good thing about lac is its easy to replace a blade and that happens a lot as local owners of Khanjars often look to upgrade blades or hilts. For cleaning the silver there are some good silver polish products like Silvo and other quite good silver polish liquids... they all pretty well work ok... we use the old method of burnishing and polish with a brass bristled brush ~ Another way is with toothpaste ... it works very well. Scrub the whole thing or the part you want to clean and wash off the residue and oxide with water... dry and buff... Marvellous.  Regards, Ibrahiim al Balooshi. |
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23rd June 2012, 03:00 AM
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#3 |
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Member
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 41
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Toothbrush To the Rescue!
Salaams, Ibrahiim,
What an incredible coincidence -- you advised use of toothbrush and paste, which is precisely what I stumbled upon myself, just yesterday. Great minds thinking alike, etc.  Actually dug out a lot of the broken resin, then heated the back of the blade red-hot over a fire in my ashtray, jammed the back of the blade into the remaining resin and -- viola! It seated itself! To be safe, I did line the new seal with epoxy, let it cure for a day, then drilled it down far enough so the hilt could fit onto the scabbard (which is sparkling cleaning and brand spanking new, thanks to the ol' toothbrush - n - silver cream polish treatment!) Result? The little khanjar shines, is functional and beautiful. Even though the seller offered to refund our purchase price, I chose to keep it and repair it. Now my wife no longer gives me The Look....you know the one.  Only problem now is, where to hang it? (Please see pics attached) * Above the big Scimitar? * Above the Koummyas? * Or leave it in its current spot? * Right below the flag from my father's coffin (WWII Vet)? And HOW to hang it on a wall without damaging the khanjar or the belt? Hmmmm.... Any ideas greatly appreciated. All best, JRF |
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24th June 2012, 07:05 AM
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#4 | |
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Buraimi Oman, on the border with the UAE
Posts: 4,408
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Quote:
Salaams NovelsRus ~ I think it looks great exactly where it is. Regards, Ibrahiim al Balooshi. |
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25th June 2012, 10:52 AM
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#5 |
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Buraimi Oman, on the border with the UAE
Posts: 4,408
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Patina.
Salaams all, I am sometimes asked why we clean Khanjars (and Swords) thus taking off what collectors call Patina.
Naturally collectors admire and seek that syndrome we call patina but in the living breathing form i.e. Local Arab users of what we call ethnographic arms here in Arabia the view is different. These khanjars are for wearing and against a pure white dishdash, Omani national dress, the weapons must be spotlessly clean... Otherwise the silver oxide makes an awful mess as it rubs off onto the white dishdash robes ! Its as simple as that. It is for that reason that Khanjars are lined at the back with either leather or felt cloth. Perhaps if you think of gold as the sun and silver the moon neither should be portrayed as dull...It should be remembered that they are the badge of office as head of the family, thus, can hardly be worn dirty. Quite often khanjars come in for cleaning... removal of the patina... but rest assured patina on silver returns really fast. It is continually oxidising ... In the store we have new items under glass which oxidise quite slowly and other khanjars... 50 or so hanging on the wall... that are full of patina ... A local client will often ask that a khanjar is cleaned before he takes it... It takes an hour... We use the same items as our silver workshops ... water and a brass bristled brush which only takes off the silver oxide and gives a burnished bright clean silver look... highly polished the khanjar is then dried in the sun, buffed with a clean cloth and ready for collection. Of course this is opposite to what many collectors want... but as I say... patina on silver returns very quickly and in a few months it is complete ... at which point the collector may wish to highlight certain aspects of the silver in a partial polish up thus keeping the contrasting older patina partly intact. Technically we don't actually remove patina but only by definition remove the "silver oxide" The old, rounded, soft effect to silver items is therefor enhanced but I hope my explanation describes the two views of the same subject. Regards, Ibrahiim al Balooshi. |
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25th June 2012, 11:03 AM
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#6 |
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Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Kuwait
Posts: 1,340
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Great info Ibrahim, makes alot of sense. Thanks.
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1st July 2012, 03:13 PM
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#7 |
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Buraimi Oman, on the border with the UAE
Posts: 4,408
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Salaams, Note to Forum;
Another Baatina design, Showing a slightly smaller size to the normal Omani Khanjar. Rhino hilt with several hundred silver pins hammered in for design and weight. The top silver hilt button snapped off. Eye of the Bedouin style pattern stitching below the belt section. Fine work behind the scenes especially in the hilt. The blade should be viewed with the eye but to hand a sprig of nutmeg, cloves, tyme, frankinsence since that is what a good blade smells of .. as does this one ~ and struck with a flicked finger the sound is of striking thick iron not thin tin. There is no ring, just a thud! Regards, Ibrahiim al Balooshi. |
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6th July 2012, 07:06 PM
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#8 |
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Buraimi Oman, on the border with the UAE
Posts: 4,408
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The Copy.
Salaams all; Note to Forum.
I have described in some detail the living ethnographics of Oman seen through the eyes of The Omani Khanjar and Omani swords. To the untrained eye these may appear as copies. Essentially they are, however, they need to be viewed as hand made copies of an exact style demanded by the particular tribe or expected of a specific regional design. To that end no additional designs are permitted. You cannot , for example, tell a silversmith to design a khanjar(or a piece of traditional Omani jewellery) with your own idea of what it could look like i.e. It must conform to the laid down pattern (or one of them) of that region from its history. Therefor when producing a new Khanjar for say a UAE KHANJAR OF THE RULING FAMILY (see # 14) we look at originals in museums and take photographs and do research to determine what we can and cannot do. There may be a specific hilt or a choice of hilts and we may have some say in the quality of blade, however, in general and over all, the khanjar must be a faithful copy of the original style..absolutely. By original I mean of a Khanjar which is the oldest available ~ often going back about 100 years. The same applies for daggers etc from other regions; There is no such thing as a dagger or a sword or a piece of Islamic jewellery which is not a faithful copy of a previous item. The character and appearance of a specific family dagger which may have begun life more or less identical to another from the same family does, however, change through the years not just by being added to (with the half dozen or so accoutrements and any one of scores of different belts) or by the slight variance in the patina but by allowable changes in blade and hilt and by repairs. So for the serious student of Omani Khanjars and other regional ethnographics it is vital to hoist in the basic lesson; The Copy. Regards, Ibrahiim al Balooshi. |
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6th July 2012, 07:23 PM
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#9 |
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Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 1,712
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Namaste Ibrahiim!
I must admit that just by eye I can often see the quality of workmanship & use of tools in manufacture in many items,both new & old.  It occurs with copy weapons in India & Nepal as well. The old adage, "OFTEN COPIED BUT NEVER DUPLICATED" springs to mind. Spiral |
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6th July 2012, 07:39 PM
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#10 | |
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Buraimi Oman, on the border with the UAE
Posts: 4,408
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[B]"OFTEN COPIED BUT NEVER DUPLICATED"[/B]
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Regards, Ibrahiim al Balooshi. |
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6th July 2012, 07:40 PM
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#11 |
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Buraimi Oman, on the border with the UAE
Posts: 4,408
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9th July 2012, 04:01 AM
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#12 |
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Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: usa
Posts: 32
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very nice.
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