Native North African sword

[Chris Evans]

Hi Gavin,

Originally Posted by freebooter

My thoughts on coverings of these African swords is that the steel would get extremely hot under the African sun, I don't think I could wield comfortably a sword that has been sitting in 40 degree plus heat all day, chances are that your hands would first reach for the steel pommel before being drawn and if it had a guard fingers would get burnt there too upon gripping the blade....

regards

Gav

A rather astute observation, if I may say so - I often wondered about this, especially the arms and armour worn during the crusades - Helmets and armour must have got dangerously hot, even in European summers, let alone the ME summers. Maybe they wore gloves or gauntlets, and perhaps shielded it from the sun with some cloth.

Cheers
Chris
PS What happened to your king sized navaja?