It's not much...

I think we're all in the same boat Bawanna. We see sharp pointy pieces of metal, we say "I want it!" then afterwards we try to figure out what the heck we just bought and how to keep the wife from using it to murder us when she finds out. It's a good way to learn about other cultures, I will say that.

I've dispatched a few cardboard boxes with my new Kaskara, seems to be quite sturdy. It's heavier than my other one and somewhat less flexible. The blade is nowhere near as sharp as my other one.
 
blue lander said:
I think we're all in the same boat Bawanna. We see sharp pointy pieces of metal, we say "I want it!" then afterwards we try to figure out what the heck we just bought and how to keep the wife from using it to murder us when she finds out. It's a good way to learn about other cultures, I will say that.

I've dispatched a few cardboard boxes with my new Kaskara, seems to be quite sturdy. It's heavier than my other one and somewhat less flexible. The blade is nowhere near as sharp as my other one.
Click to expand...


This right here. The cultural learning curve. Awesome. Thanks for letting me hang out with you guys and girls.
 
yeah could not agree more about why they are interesting, its like looking at the culture , and its history

also yeah there are loads n loads of fakes, I would go with antiques dealers who stand by the stuff they offer, you pay more but you have assurances of your investment rather than rolling the dice like on ebay, I got a great authentic sikin from aceh years ago on ebay, with sheath, so you can find real deal stuff.

I really enjoy collecting weapons because of the history though, as I am relatively obsessed with that anyway, I love HI because they are hand made, antiques for the same
 
Speaking of learning history through pointy pieces of metal, I've been reading alot about the Mahdist war due to my interest in North African swords. In the mid/late 1800's a guy declared himself to be the Mahdi, sort of the Islamic version of the Messiah, raised an army and kicked the Egyptians out of Sudan. They didn't care much for modern weapons and mostly used swords and spears and whatnot. Some of the last major "sword on sword" battles were fought during this time. The Egyptians eventually returned with British troops as well as gun boats and Maxim guns and totally annihilated the Mahdist army.

Supposedly the battle ground was littered with thousands of kasaras when the fighting was done, which is how many of them entered European collections. Because of the similarity to medieval European swords, many assumed that the kaskaras were actually recycled Crusader blades. Some misguided individuals would take the blades out of the kaskaras and remount them in "Medieval" style hilts thinking they were restoring the blade to its original form.

Neither of my kaskaras are anywhere near old enough to have been used in this war, they're probably mid 20th century. Still cool, though. The painting on the Wikipedia entry shows a guy carrying one. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahdist_war
 
I read all about that war actually and the mahdi himself, was very interesting mystery cult surrounding him being the inheritor of mahomet, I too have seen lots of antiques related to the mahdist war , is very cool -- also the siege of vienna is where a great deal of ottoman empire artifacts ended up in european hands :D
 
The siege of Vienna... never heard of it. off to Wikipedia!

I'm sort of glad my swords aren't from the Mahdi era. I read they were mostly made of cast iron and snapped very easily. Most Mahdi war knives/swords I've seen have been of very poor quality. I guess they had to manufacture a ton of weapons in a very short time and the lack of quality reflects that. I do wonder what my kaskaras are made of, though. Anything 30-40 years old and after is made from spring steel, but I see what look laminations in at least one of my kaskaras, which implies to me it was made from some other steel source. Maybe I'm mistaken but there'd be no point in laminating spring steel, right?
 
Last edited:
they are indeed, but the mahdists cast them with really interesting calligraphy, thinking the magic would be enough, and it was at first !

later lamination of a spring steel blade may mean repairs?
 
Maybe... these failed laminations are right by the hilt and there's like 8 of them. I have a feeling that if you swung this thing in anger and hit something hard by accident, the blade would bust apart.
 
So I was perusing e-bay today in my quest to buy a European sabre without taking out a second mortgage, and I see this sword labeled as a movie prop sword.



"Hmm," I think to myself "It's probably a replica, but I did read somewhere that Hollywood used to by a lot of authentic military surplus weapons for their movies. Let's take a closer look."



The hilt looks like it's wrapped in fish skin with quite a bit of wear to it. The blade is stamped "UCI 9", but it looks like underneath it says Solingen. If it's from Solingen then it might be a real sword. I googled for a sword maker called UCI, but nothing came up. Turns out it stands for "United Costume Inc". So maybe it is a replica. But it looks like the UCI was stamped atop the Solingen stamp at a later date, so maybe UCI just marked it when it came into their inventory. I doubt a costume provider would be in the business of making their own swords anyway.

There's something written underneath the "9" under Solingen, but I can't make it out. It looks like the first letter is a W and the last two letters are ST. So I google and google until I find some bayonets marked "W&ST Solingen." Bingo!

W&ST is short for Weyersberg & Stamm, and they made swords and bayonets for the Germans and Austrians between 1817 and 1872. Now I'm back to thinking it's a real sword. So now I just need to figure out exactly what make/model the sword is. After a bit more googling, I find a fairly close match



It's a Austrian Model 1861 Infantry Officer’s Sword, and Weyersberg & Stamm did manufacture them. There are some slight differences so maybe it's some other related model. It's a fairly common sword and not worth much, but it's an actual fighting sword not just an officer's dress piece. I'm pretty convinced at this point it's real, it's clearly old and why would somebody bother replicating such a common sword? It's still a possibility, though, so I decide to offer the seller less than what he was asking. He accepted, so now it's mine! It'll be here next week and hopefully this time I won't be disappointed. It isn't a cavalry sabre, but it will definitely do.
 
Excellent detective skills Blue. Looks real enough and definitely worthy to my untrained eye. Kind of cool.
 
Thanks! It was fun doing the research. The only bummer besides all the rust is that it's stamped UCI all over. I don't know if that makes it less cool because some jerk stamped over the makers mark, or more cool because it might have been in some movie.
 
yeah it is the best to get a prize after some research, very few things as gratifying --this is the great of ebay
 
Here's one more knife I have in the pipeline. Looks to be made from an old bayonet or saber. It's a Moroccan "Shula". It's called that because Don Shula used one to motivate Larry Csonka. True story.
 
love the details on the blade there! man its so clear that was a saber at one time !
 
What confuses me on these sabre-turned-moroccan blades is the exaggerated curve at the end. Isn't it more curved then you'd expect in a sabre?
 
when i look at pictures of european cav from the 19th and 18th century I see pretty much lots of deep curves, english used good straight swords but even they had some curve, I just think its always been an effective design, gotta rely on the experience you have gotten together on these things for this ! I am learning much the same way with mandaus and naga/kachin dao/dha-- my camera is recharging I will soon post some stuff, i reserved a spot in collections !
 
I think I've fallen out of love with pattern 19th century sabers. They may be the most effective swords ever made, but they have no personality. They really perfected the whole "killing someone with a sharp piece of metal" thing in the early 20th century, but there's no soul to the things.
 
well if you want character I can't really talk about mandaus enough, I will post mine soon
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top