filled wholes on indian sword blades

[rand]

Was looking at Shah Jahans dagger after recently reading this thread on holes in swords and found thes when taking a close look.
Shah Jahan 1628-1657
Dagger dates 1629-1630 AD

rand

[Richard Furrer]

Hello All,
This may not be exactly what is discussed here, but it does involve a rivet on a blade...

I have seen rivets holding on a portion of wootz near the spine which had broken off due to the seam on the spine causing a weakness (the seam or dark line on the spine of some wootz blades being the top of the ingot which can fold over during forging or may contain poor metals from the melt)...the rivet was also wootz...

Also do not discount the idea that a contrasting metal, filework, fullers or even a carving (horimono on Japanese blades) were used to hide a flaw in the steel...a poor weld or inclusion or a crack from hardening etc.

Ric

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Richard Furrer

Hello All,
This may not be exactly what is discussed here, but it does involve a rivet on a blade...

I have seen rivets holding on a portion of wootz near the spine which had broken off due to the seam on the spine causing a weakness (the seam or dark line on the spine of some wootz blades being the top of the ingot which can fold over during forging or may contain poor metals from the melt)...the rivet was also wootz...

Also do not discount the idea that a contrasting metal, filework, fullers or even a carving (horimono on Japanese blades) were used to hide a flaw in the steel...a poor weld or inclusion or a crack from hardening etc.

Ric

Thank you so much for responding to this Ric. I was wondering if this practice might have had some structural application as you describe, but it seemed the holes and rivets were too strategically placed to correspond to something as presumably random as a structural flaw. I know next to zippety doo dah about metallurgy , so really wasnt sure if the idea was valid or not, so thanks for answering it.

All best regards,
Jim

[Jim McDougall]

In other reading I found some other items I thought I would add here to those interested in this topic.

In Elgood's "Hindu Arms and Ritual" (p.265), it is noted that,"...before going off to war a husband would have his forehead marked with a 'tilak', a smear of sandal paste between the eyebrows. The same auspicious dot is placed on arms to be worshipped".

Given the aversion to iron/steel observed in Hindu religion, I wonder if a brass dot might somehow attend to these beliefs in auspicious placement on the blade in the manner of the sandal paste dot? It is known that the use of brass and copper on mounts on Hindu weapons were often intended to counter the negative forces of the iron in the blade.

In another note which may or may not apply to pierced dots in blades, while reading through notes from Briggs ("European Blades in Tuareg Swords and Daggers", JAAS, Vol.V, #2, 1965), he notes on p.80 that one takouba blade was pierced just above the rounded point and had the hole filled by a copper plug. It should be noted that Tuaregs also maintained superstitious aversion to iron, which is why hilts are leather covered as well as some forms are brass covered on guard.
Also he notes that a 'southern' type takouba has a blade pierced near the middle of the blade with an open oval hole, and states "...I have no idea what the purpose and meaning, if any, of these mutilations by piercing can have been".

Our frustrations were clearly also experienced by this great scholar!!!

Best regards,
Jim

[Lee]

Below is a better photograph of the firangi showing the two holes filled with iron and three photographs of the hilt for Jens.