Old Omani Saif

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by TVV

Thank you for your responses.

Iain,

Yes, the fuller is unusual, not sure what that would signify though.

Ibrahiim,

Your passion about ethnographic arms is admirable and overall an asset to this forum. I am well aware of your hypothesis about Omani swords - after all, the whole discussion started in a 12-page thread for a sword I posted years ago. I am sure you are also aware that I am among the many members here who simply find that hypothesis factually incorrect. I do not expect you to change your position, but you should also understand that posting the same hypothesis over and over and over again will not make it true or make us accept it. Based on that, I will ask that we avoid the topic of your theory about the "battle" and "dance" swords here, as doing so will be entirely unproductive at this point.

Back to the subject of the sword in hand: everything is possible, including a marriage of hilt and blade. I am sure that there is such a practice in Oman, and to deny so would be naïve. The blade is of a shape that fits the older Omani sword shape and not much else. Are you aware of any Indian, Persian or Central Asian swords that have short wide thin wootz blades that fit the measurements I gave above, because I cannot? The fact that it is made of wootz is also important in another manner. The crucible steel technology has been recreated in modern times, thanks to the effort of researchers and bladesmiths, some of whom are members here. Based on what I have seen, just knowing how to replicate the process does not make producing crucible steel easy or cheap, however. So in the worst possible case, this could be a marriage of an old hilt with an old blade from another Omani sword, though the pitch inside the hilt looks to have some age and the blade width fits the sword perfectly.

Regards,
Teodor

Whatever you think about threads gone by and my place in Forum it remains a free place to comment on the discussion of items and thus I have exercised that right. I find it obscure to present a sword but to expect to launch with it spurious details about other swords under that umbrella. It simply isn't right. Your comment about price and Solingen blades is incorrect and unrelated to topic nor should you expect to try that on unchecked. Why expect it to be inoculated against rebuke.

No evidence exists to support your point about cheaper blades..Solingen did not make Omani dancing blades and the curved sword with the same hilt has an entirely different provenance. In one paragraph you cannot expect a trashing of half of the swords of Oman just to pass quietly and without comment...That is not how Forum works. However, if you think you are right, please make the case. It's a Forum.

What I suspect you have here is something like a 16th C /17thC Hilt with a recent replacement blade. Examination of the material holding the blade firm is extremely difficult to guage when the blade was fitted...Actually these swords have no glue or tar as the blade is held in place by two rivets through a hexagonal two piece metal tube and a wooden core and through the tang...unlike Khanjars blades which are glued/tar fixed.

These blades are not usually thin... They are normally thicker and stiff ...There is normally about an inch of flexibility only as these were chopping weapons. If you can disclose where you got the sword I will be closer to knowing who did the blade fit up. That can be done by PM or stick it on the thread.