West African ? sword for I.D. and comment.

[colin henshaw]

Thanks Iain, most interesting.

The scabbard and handle covering appear the same work and seem newer than the blade. Perhaps the blade has been refurnished at some time. Was this common ? The blade is single edged and does not have much "spine", also the quality is not so great. I usually assume this means native work, but I suppose European trade blades would also be of cheap/poor quality sometimes ? Also to be considered is whether native blades were made from smelted local iron ore, or European scrap metal...

The scabbard on my sword, with the squared-off end looks slightly as if it was a longer scabbard cut down maybe ?

An aspect I have noticed on blades that are presumably native work, is how they rust. Somali blades, some kaskaras, and these West African blades often seem to develop deepish black rust patches... Have you any observations on this ?

Can you recommend any references/books on the historical European export trade in sword blades to Africa ? I wonder if there are any old manufacturers' export blade catalogues in existence ?

Regards, Colin

[Jim McDougall]

Iain, you are far too modest! Your command of the particulars and overall nature of the production and diffusion of the swords of North Africa is stellar!!! Thank you for always adding such great detail and links to illustrate the observations and identifications as well.
It seems that I have seen these 'rondel' type hilts often mounted with 'kaskara' blades and typically classified as Sierra Leone as well, obviously a bordering region and as you have noted the diffusion of these blades was comprehensive throughout contiguous regions along with tribal movements and trade.
I completely agree that presuming native work on blades that cannot be definitively established as European by either characteristic or notable markings is the best policy. I also agree that the 'dukari' or twin moon marks so well known in Saharan blades became well established as a 'quality' device and later applied in degenerated context widely. The 'off center' fullering on this blade seems to be a considerably altered blade of 'kaskara' type, and perhaps the seemingly quite modern scabbard was simply fashioned by a local tribesman to accomodate the piece. It does not seem the work of an artisan who typically carried out such work, the carrying ring is crudely mounted through the braided leather trim rather than in a ring mount or specifically designed mount and the rather industrial metal chape seems roughly fashioned from some type of sheet or scrap.

Colin, I have little metallurgical knowledge, but I have always presumed that these dark patches of corrosion on many of these latter 19th century weapons resulted from the failure of galvanized or other similarly treated sheet steel or industrial metalwork products often used in these blades.
On the well placed note on European trade blades, we only wish there were such literature. While in the latter 19th century, the commercialization of this industry did have some types of catalogs in Solingen for mostly military type swords... the only other type catalogs I have been aware of is in certain cases of smallswords in England and in degree in Europe .

For the most part, blades were simply a commercial commodity which were included with other materials carried for trade, and were not selected or ordered from catalogs. The only material which has lent to tracing the producers of these blades has been the compilations of markings and devices presumed to certain makers, and associated with accord with guilds. These records have only existed in less than accurately documented cases with the exception of some of the records in Solingen. It is a topic which has never been sufficiently researched or published, and in the many years I have been intrigued by it, I feel I have barely scratched the surface

All best regards,
Jim

[Iain]

Originally Posted by colin henshaw

Thanks Iain, most interesting.

Glad to be of some help. It's a nice excuse to look into some other areas than takouba and kaskara.

The scabbard and handle covering appear the same work and seem newer than the blade. Perhaps the blade has been refurnished at some time. Was this common ? The blade is single edged and does not have much "spine", also the quality is not so great. I usually assume this means native work, but I suppose European trade blades would also be of cheap/poor quality sometimes ? Also to be considered is whether native blades were made from smelted local iron ore, or European scrap metal...

That's about what I figured from the photo, that the mounts and scabbard were newer.

Refurnishing blades was very common and but for the odd, non centered placement of the fullers, I could almost imagine your blade as a cut down takouba. What's the width on the blade? Might be that the back edge was in fact cut down and thus the lack of a spine. If the quality does not seem particularly good I would be quite confident calling it native work.

EUropean blades, particularly for kaskara, were often chunky, even ugly, pieces of work, but one thing they all had was excellent temper and usually a lot more heft and thickness than native blades.

Native blades were made from both ore and scrap. Scrap of course coming a lot later, in the Sudan this matches up with construction of the railroad in the very late 1890s and in N. Nigeria a somewhat similar time frame I believe.

Cheap European machetes I think would be a more common alternative to scrap. There was a lot of local ore refining around the Sahel so I doubt the raw materials were in short supply.

The scabbard on my sword, with the squared-off end looks slightly as if it was a longer scabbard cut down maybe ?

Possible, but I think as the hilt and scabbard seem to be the same age it's unlikely the scabbard was shortened along with the blade. So I'd say probably built this way.

An aspect I have noticed on blades that are presumably native work, is how they rust. Somali blades, some kaskaras, and these West African blades often seem to develop deepish black rust patches... Have you any observations on this ?

I am not sure that pattern of deep, black rust is due to the use of European galvanized steel. I have seen that occur, but I have also seen iron rich native blades entirely covered in active red rust. When cleaned reasonably well, it has revealed absolutely clean sections and then patches of heavy black rust of the exact same nature. So I think it is something that possibly effects native iron and lower carbon steels? Magnetite I believe is the technical term, otherwise known as Fe3O4. A wild guess would be that it effects certain areas due to uneven steel consistency? Then again I am not a metallurgist and am quite probably wrong! But I can't think of a better reason as to why, in various levels, I've seen it occur on newer African blades likely sourced from scrap, as well as good, old work as well.

Can you recommend any references/books on the historical European export trade in sword blades to Africa ? I wonder if there are any old manufacturers' export blade catalogues in existence ?

I think Jim answered this quite well. Nothing really out there yet, myself and a few other folks would like to change that over the next few years. But it's very much a case of being 100 years late to the party in terms of first hand resources. We have a few patterns and marks we can recognize at least in takouba and kaskara, some of them we can also date that way for European blades. I imagine something on machetes exists somewhere? That's a specialty I never looked into. As Jim said, I only wish I could recommend a good resource.


Jim,

As always, much to kind. The hilt style you mention does seem to occur in northern Sierra Leone and is very much of a family with Colin's sword. The Manding are such a wide ranging group with many sub groups the variation in swords should not be surprising I guess. It is interesting to remember they trace their heritage to the great Mali empire, which was ruled by them.

We are very much on the same page regarding the fittings and possible explanation behind this piece I think.

Cheers,

Iain