Karabela... but is it genuine Polish?

RSWORD · 24th July 2007, 01:05 PM

I remember this sword at the Baltimore show earlier this year and had a chance to handle it. The blade is Indian and is an old blade. By old, I mean 18th or 19th century. You can see the armoury markings on the spine. Notice also the typical Indian ricasso at the forte. You have the interesting "channeled" spine which is not common but is found on some Indian, Chinese and E European blades. The blade has genuine wear throughout. The hilt, however, is another matter. As you can see from one of the pictures, the vertical guard still has a lot of tooling marks. They look a bit clumsy to me and somewhat crude. The leather is fairly nicely done but does not show a lot of genuine age. So, a composite piece of antique blade with newer handle of unknown age but almost certainly 20th century.

24th July 2007, 01:05 PM	#5
RSWORD Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Greensboro, NC Posts: 1,089	I remember this sword at the Baltimore show earlier this year and had a chance to handle it. The blade is Indian and is an old blade. By old, I mean 18th or 19th century. You can see the armoury markings on the spine. Notice also the typical Indian ricasso at the forte. You have the interesting "channeled" spine which is not common but is found on some Indian, Chinese and E European blades. The blade has genuine wear throughout. The hilt, however, is another matter. As you can see from one of the pictures, the vertical guard still has a lot of tooling marks. They look a bit clumsy to me and somewhat crude. The leather is fairly nicely done but does not show a lot of genuine age. So, a composite piece of antique blade with newer handle of unknown age but almost certainly 20th century.