The forged-in ribs that Artzi is referring to should not be confused with the ground-in double fullers that are relatively common and very 20th century. The one jambiya of this type I’ve seen with a wootz blade was flat, neither ribbed nor fullered, and to confuse matters even more, was in a leather-covered scabbard with both authentic use-wear and bright plastic decorative trim. The Arabian peninsula is an unusual place, in that they had a very late surviving ethnographic weapons tradition and then a very rapid conversion to modern materials & decorative/tourist-grade blades - it makes for some interesting juxtapositions.
16th August 2009, 02:05 PM
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