It's not much...

oh man i hate it when that happens, the only reason I got this dha was because nobody knew about it, I found some old "want to sell" ad on a forum from years ago , sent the guy a mail and he still had stuff he wanted to sell , hopefully I can get a few more items off of him but I think this is the prize-- its just very hard to be the guy who gets the lucky auction, but it can happen, I almost always miss out ! when I saw this dha i had to get it, as I was just lamenting never being able to get one like it
 
The nice thing about a dha like that is you only have to look at it for 30 seconds to tell it's something special. If this stupid sabre will take an edge I'll consider it a victory. But my guess is that it's going to be "butter knife" quality steel, probably made in India. Most replicas with some age to them seem to be made in India, the newer ones being from China of course.

Sometimes the replicas are almost as good as the real thing. My "dream sword" is still a Polish cavalry sabre. A real one from the WW2 era runs about $1000 but you can get a nearly identical one from China for about $150. It almost seems worth it to own something identical to the real thing, but on the other hand the resale value is probably nill. If you buy a real one for 1k you could probably flip it for $1500 in 5 years.
 
yeah thats the main benefit to buying real, is that it is an appreciating investment, and if you intend to pass down collections to young relatives, then it can really be a good investment, I would say save up for the real thing and pick it up, almost all the antiques guys will hold for you if you just talk to them. :D-- all those old east european cavalry sabers were very well made, I actually just saw a hussar's saber on one of the dealers, if you really like the stuff I say get the real thing !

and yeah about china and india, when in the 60s and 70s people were mildly interested in antiques and ethnography india began churning out fakes, complete with new koftgari work , as china as grown it too now churns out fakes and replicas, but most of the fakes I bought were made in 60s in india --but I have some confidence when I buy because I use antiques dealers, they may be ripping me off too but I feel like they arent lol
 
I think I've discovered what my stainless steel sabre is, or at least is supposed to be. I think it's a reproduction of either a model 1822 French cavalry sabre or an 1860 US Light cavalry sabre. Both look very similar as the 1860 is apparently based on the 1822. The seller's in France so that points to the 1822, but the 1860 was/is copied all the time for Civil War reenactors. Either way I bet it came out of India in the 1960's or so, and I bet the side of the blade the seller neglected to show in the auction probably says "INDIA" on it. Like I said I'll just be happy if it has an edge on it and the blade doesn't wobble when I shake it.

Speaking of fakes, here's a weird little one. It's obviously modern and factory made but I bought it for $10 so I don't care. The seller said it was a Native American knife, and the box it came in has a picture of a Native American lady on it. But the knife's obviously in the style of a Tibetan dossum. The little fishies on the hilt are a typical Tibetan Buddhist decoration, not sure what's going on with the sheath though.

fakedossum1_zpsbb8affb6.jpg


Adding to the weirdness, the writing on the back is in Mongolian. My translator/wife says it says "steppe memory", which I guess is the same thing "The Prairie accepts as a memento" means. The handle is resin and feels hollow, but it's actually pretty sturdy and sharp all around. My guess is that it's a Chinese made souvenir for tourists in Inner Mongolia, but then they decided to sell it overseas as Native American.

 
My Adi tribe Dao should come in today, the suspense is killing me! Here's an interesting description of how the Adi keep pigs.
They keep pigs in a very unusual way: The pigs are kept in a fenced area under the house, which is on stilts and feed on human waste as the pig pen is situated right under the toilet. The pigs are let out in the day. The meat of the toilet pig is considered a delicacy
Click to expand...
 
the sweet toilet pig, that is a hilarious bit of information ! I have a kora coming this week, will post here !
 
I don't know if I'd partake of the flesh of a toilet pig. I'll eat dog or horse or goat eyeballs, but toilet pig might be a line I won't cross. Although from a scientific perspective I'm sure it's perfectly safe.
 
guy sent me pictures of the only dha he had ever seen with a repurposed european blade, this is definitely not in my collection, its over 57 inches long I think



he said it was a very flexible thin blade , high quality, you can make out the two fullers
 
Oh yeah, that looks quite European.

The Dao came in, here it is:



The blade's still quite sharp although it's dinged up quite a bit



The steel reminds me quite a lot of the antique Bhojpuri khuk I bought, same sort of pattern to the steel and it seems a bit softer than what you'd expect. All in all it's quite nice. I'll probably clean some of the rust off the blade, some of it doesn't look stabilized. The cutting edge is rust free, so I guess it was used somewhat recently.
 
looks like a good utility knife, probably is old even if it was recently used-- here are the pictures of the kora I have on the way, it got tied up in the mail but I wanted to make good on the promise huzzah







got it for a really good price considering the quality and age
 
The handle looks like the HI museum model. Man i like that alot! Didnt they use the end to turn soil and dig with? That would explain the need for the double "T" spine. Cool eye marking. Do you know how old it is?
 
mid 19th century-- I will update with pics when I get , i really hope to have this week still, delay on my dha as well :o all the bad weather has slowed the mails
 
That kora is niiiice! Looks like a serious piece of steel.

Look what came in the mail yesterday...



It's not particularly nice or old, but it's still a big ol' sword which is pretty awesome. The blade seems like your usual spring steel variety, it's about as thick and flexy as a nice machete. No maker's marks or anything interest like that, just a fuller. It's quite sharp. The edges are a little dinged up but 5 minutes with a steel would probably have it in fighting condition. I'm almost tempted to dull the edges a little for safety.



The blade wobbles a little bit, I'm going to see if there's an "acceptable" way to fix this without ruining the authenticity or whatever.
 
I am pretty sure everyone who has antiques restores some of them, rewrapping the handle in original material after making sure the tang is pinned right, is not too much imo-- I will probably wrap my kora handle in some kind of material either leather or wire, just so it looks cooler
 
Gehazi said:
I am pretty sure everyone who has antiques restores some of them, rewrapping the handle in original material after making sure the tang is pinned right, is not too much imo-- I will probably wrap my kora handle in some kind of material either leather or wire, just so it looks cooler
Click to expand...

"Some of them" of the least value if the intent is to sell as refurbished.

All collectors and historians sings the same "don't touch it" when it comes to rare and valuable pieces.

Few years ago I bought an Olympic participation medal way under market price. The owner was very proud of it. Taking it out of the box and showing it to as many guests as he can. The piece had oxidation stains beyond normal aging due to the careless handling. I was tempted to restore it a little, but before doing so, I made a phone call. The answer was loud and clear. A naturally in bad shape historic artifact worth more than the same one that has been restored. The only exception is if the aging process is about to totally destroyed the artifact. Then at one point, tempering for preservation will be "acceptable" if everything else fails.
 
That's what I'm worried about, that I'll make it worse by trying to fix it. Sword collectors seem to be of two minds on the matter. One says that you should only stop active rust and otherwise leave it alone. The other says that you should treat the sword the way an owner of that culture would. And mostly they don't like their old swords looking old and dirty, it'd be disrespectful. Like, if you found a katana with 100 years of patina on it, it would be acceptable to have it professionally cleaned. Or if the sword has brass ornamentation on it that's supposed to be shiny, you can polish it.

With Kaskaras, apparently the hilts aren't valued much in that culture. The blade and crossguard on a Kaskara are, but when a hilt is worn out they just chuck it and replace it with a new one. Or if the leather on the hilt gets worn out they just rewrap it. If the sword is old the hilt's probably already been replaced several times before you even got it..
 
yeah on swords I have never heard of a collector who said "leave that rust on the steel" and the petina remains even if you polish it out , because age goes into deep surface loss already , hence cleaning old blades is something lots of people do ,this is probably only true of weapons. I mean on a gun I can run steel wool over it and oil the furniture and polish the steel, as long as I dont grind away the metal it does not affect the value on bit, in fact a brand new looking old gun sells a lot better than a gun with filth all over it , same with swords and all weapons in general, if there are two minds on the subject I am def with the camp that says "treat them as they should be treated" like weapons.

the only thing I would not say restore is truly ancient weapons that are almost all corrosion or ancient bronzes

otherwise active rust should always be neutralized and oil and or wax should be applied to preserve the state of the steel as close to original as possible, also in some weapons the surface filth hides the truly interesting pamor , and im all for polishing that out so you can see the lines better, never seen a blade lose value due to that either( mind you this is on things prob in the last 200 years , I can see 500 year old blades being polished at all and losing value, because they have almost none of the original material ( save in very rare cases) surface wise I mean, well its all original, but even if polished would still look really corroded adn you will just lose the bits of metal sticking out , but i dont own anything that old so thats all conjecture , huzzah, but my naga dao, kachin etc all that stuff, I have treated them like HI blades( oil and clean and hang on a wall, but kept as if they are going to be used even if I never will
 
Last edited:
Gehazi said:
otherwise active rust should always be neutralized and oil and or wax should be applied to preserve the state of the steel as close to original as possible, also in some weapons the surface filth hides the truly interesting pamor
Click to expand...

Agree, neutralizing rust and proper cleaning will help preservation without altering it's nature. Redoing the handle on the other hand (pun intended) is a bit more intrusive.

Do you watch Sons of guns show? Once a guy brought a very old flintlock gun. It could of been a very valuable piece if all original and part of a specific battle. Even if the gun had quite a story, it apparently had a very long and busy life. It was also repaired with many parts from different eras during its service. Ended up to worth no more than few hundreds (or thousands) but not enough to pay the tuition for a half decent school.
 
fact is you will never find a weapon in mint condition unless( or at least I never will lol) it comes straight out of a royal armory or the rarified heights of true wealth (again need more millions), sons of guns is a cool business they are there to make money, and yeah i have seen it, though I do not like the "reality show " aspect , i like the old history channel shows about guns more( where they are in the armory of the us , or UK and showing off the old collection( tortuga antiques is his company and he sells some of the coolest chests ive seen, but man expensive buddy)--not to say his assessment is not valid, i think it is , but not a problem im going to ever have lol


and tying cotton around a handle or wire will not affect it because it can be removed without altering the thing at all , ( so to say the kora is all steel handle, there will be no marks left by a new wrapping :D)-- most of my guns are from ww 2 I dont have any truly old ones, but all of mine are 50+ , but no muskets etc -- but yeah weapons that really get used get used up, and become basically trash- I read lots of stories about "sawtooth swords" after someone posted in another thread I think, about hardening , all these stories of soldiers who ruined their blades in battle and basically threw them away after. also damn thing is in limbo , left oakland never got updated !
 
I read you should never remove the patina on a rifle or gun, but it may or may not be okay with a sword depending on where it came from. And if there are silver/brass/gold parts that are "supposed" to be shiny, you can shine them too. I don't think non European/American cultures value patina much.

I say if you want your sword to look like an antique that's fine. But if you want it to look like an active, useful weapon it's okay to restore it to working condition, IE how it would have been during its working life. I read an article awhile back about how in the 40's and 50's museums would polish the hell out of their swords and armor to make them look like they did back in the day, and now everybody's upset they "ruined" them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top