Ethiopean Sword

[Bill M]

Originally Posted by Conogre

Hi Bill;
I too have seen blond colored rhino horn, and, as you mentioned, it is very similar to wood in its graininess and likewise in its being opaque, with no member of the rhino family having translucent horns.
Another way to tell is to moisten it...if it's rhino horn it will expand, making the hairs individually apparent and giving it a slightly "sticky" feel, as in very fine velcro, one of the prime reasons it was (and still is, thus the poaching problem) prized for hilt material, as opposed to regular horn, which will become slippery.
While the horns of giraffe are less compacted than rhinocerous, they are still used rarely to occasionally, very fortunate for giraffes, while the hoofs of many of the large quadrapeds are very similar to the material found in their horns and could also be easily used for hilting/ scabbard sheating purposes, although they are more commonly used, of course, as "Jello".
Mike

Mike,

I tried your moistening suggestion and it does feel 'sticky' and not slippery. But with a strong light behind it, it IS translucent.

The blade and scabbard are much better than the average Ethiopean sword and a quailty hilt would be in order.

IF this is not rhino, what could it be?

A friend suggested it might be cow horn.

Discussion on this Forum earlier about hilt possibilities.

http://www.vikingsword.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/002288.html


"Jello?" This is making me hungry. Do they make a rhino or giraffe flavored Jello? On second thought, I think that I'll pass.

[Mark]

I have been trying to think of which big, horned critters are found in Ethiopia, and actually there are not many. I do not believe that there are any native species of rhino, for instance. Of course, it might be imported. Is it possible that oils from handling impregnated the handle and made it more translucent?

Cow horn is not so outlandish and idea, actually, as there tons of them in Ethiopia, and some have enormous horns. Though generally hollow, the tip would be solid, and big horns would have sizable solid parts.

[Conogre]

I would tend to agree that this sword (IS it a gurade? ) would be deserving of a high quality hilt and that rhinocerous horn would certainly be in order and not at all unusual, so that's not a problem at all.
I also noticed that the only place that it appears slightly translucent is at the pommel end, which is a seperate piece that appears to be cut cross-grain from the rest of the hilt and even here only at the edges, so it's possible that it was cut from a piece of the horn that had slightly less mass (or possibly from a younger, immature animal whose horn was only partially developed) than the rest for wideness.
When dealing with animal by-products in weaponry, one thing that we tend to forget is that no two are ever exactly alike due to differences in individual animals so a certain amount of variation is not only to be expected, but is actually inevitable.
As to the likelihood of the hilt coming from a local animal, I'd like to interject here that if a material is highly valued enough, no distance is too great or cost too extreme for the very rich or royalty, and since rhinocerous horn is a commonly used material in Islamic weaponry of exceptional quality, it's also a good example as rhinocerous occur nowhere in what is commonly thought of as Islamic territory, with the possible exception of Borneo, and that's just since the acceptance of Indonesia as a unified nation.
Another extremely popular material for hilting, of course, is elephant ivory, this having been so since the days of the earliest cave paintings, not to mention look at the amount of Mammoth ivory that shows up as sword and knife hilts and the regions in which these weapons frequently appear.
While the jury is still out, it appears more and more likely that the extinction of the Wooly Mammoth was indeed largely brought about by overhunting by humans, with the entire tusk probably used as tent supports.
Mike

[spiral]

Hi Guys,

Nice sword Bill!

Rhino horn sometimes has a translucent outer layer, at least.

Heres a solid, 26 inch long, 2part {eg. The handle & shaft} Georgian {As in pre Victorean.} Rhino horn riding crop, which shows the partial translucent outer layer in the handle.{from a small diameter tusk.The tusk center is the other lighter patch.}

When carried in bright sunlight it glows like a bulb in the translucent area !

The colour varies from yellow to green brown on the handle & the shaft is green brown without translucency.


Spiral

[Bill M]

Thanks Spiral!

Here are some more pictures showing a damaged place. Unfortunately I don't have the chip.

[derek]

Hi guys,

Just saw this one, several comments.

First, that's rhino. The first pics show it well. The way it's broken shows the fibers also.

As Jeff noted, and according to Mr. Wilkinson-Latham who provided me with a lot of blade rubbings, catalogs and copies of sword orders from Abyssinia, the G.G. is in fact the Ges Gesh mark that was stamped on blades exported from Solingen by various manufacturers. VERY cool that someone has already ID'ed the stamp on this sword. Julius Voos also sent many swords to Ethiopia.

The Lion of Judah is based on the claim that the emporers of Abyssinia are descended from Solomon & the "queen of Sheba". Solomon & David were of the tribe of Judah, as was Jesus, who is referred to as the conquering lion of Judah. Haille Selassie had many titles, this was one, along with Light of the World. There were a few good old threads on this in the old forum.

That's a fantastic sword, Bill. Rare to find a scabbard in such good shape.

Regarding the terms used, this is the best I can figure based on what I've read and seen, so don't hold it as etched in stone.

The recurved swords are called shotels.

The curved sabre styles are called gurades.

The straight swords are often referred to as seifs. Just a guess, but I'm thinking maybe the term "seif", which is obviously arabic, filtered in over time because they are shaped like the kaskara -- which I have read on this forum is also called a seif by locals very often.

[roanoa]

Sorry to disagree with some of you guys (Hi, Derek), but the hilt is NOT rhino. It is of bovine origin. Lots of humped cattle in Abyssinia with huge horns. I have enought rhino hilts and "cow" hilts in my collection to tell the difference. I agree that the main straight piece looks fibrous, BUT it is clearly "scaly". Cow horn will look translucent too. The give-away is the hole that is usully found in the "cross" piece. The tip of cow/buffalo horns is solid but not wide enough. So they are cut sideway and the end of the hole will show most of the times. By the way, I have seen several examples of the same sword with wooden hilts. And I have seen very crudely made shotes with rhino hilts. So the quality of the blade is not always associated with the quality, or material, of the hilt.