Taureg Sword from Northern Sudan

B

Bill Marsh

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Mar 26, 2002
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Don't know too much about these. It is 34.25 inches overall in scabbard. I believe that these swords are made for the more common fighter in the Sudan. I have a Kaskara that was made for the chieftans. The roughness of the blade indicates it was probably forged by native blacksmiths aas opposed to the more finished blades made by the Europeans and sold to the Sudanese.

I will be posting a few more African swords and other pieces from the 19th century. These pieces are better made than the newer ones. Much of the old African forge technology was lost becasue it was easier to get ivory and trade it to the Europeans for weapons.

They had an incredible black coating that prevented rust and lasted forever. Nobody knows how to make it any more.
 
Love em. I have always wanted to get a good Kaskara, and still do. Ahh if only
my funds matched my wants. So please more posts so I can live vicariously through others.
 
Kewl!!!! :cool:

Some of that old primitive forging turned out a steel that was as fine as any from Toledo or Sheffield, just not as pretty or fancy.:D
 
This is probably not what to do - but in my teenage years I owned a couple of knives. One was a carbon steel commando dagger and was always picking up rust spots when I used it out camping.

One day I had a brainwave, to remove the rust I would use a mild acid. The only thing we had around was cola. I left the knife in the cola overnight. It came out with a lovely dark finish that didn't just rub off but could be removed with wire wool. Stopped the rust.

Maybe the africans had something similar.

PS
Still have the dagger and it still looks ok.
 
Moff8 said:
This is probably not what to do - but in my teenage years I owned a couple of knives. One was a carbon steel commando dagger and was always picking up rust spots when I used it out camping.

One day I had a brainwave, to remove the rust I would use a mild acid. The only thing we had around was cola. I left the knife in the cola overnight. It came out with a lovely dark finish that didn't just rub off but could be removed with wire wool. Stopped the rust.

Maybe the africans had something similar.

PS
Still have the dagger and it still looks ok.
Click to expand...

I have never used cola for that purpose, but it could certainly work. I have heard that hot sauce would take off rust, but don't know if the guy was kidding. He swore that somethng in the acid removed rust.

Actually rust is FeO, Ferric Oxide or simply iron joined with oxygen. To keep from rusting you must keep the oxygen from the iron. Various coatings will do this. Oil works well. Certain forms of wax also.

To remove rust, you can remove the oxygen from the iron. The surface rust will brush away. The problem I face is that I want to get rid of the rust, but not to remove any good metal. Abrasive methods remove iron or steel.

With the antique swords I don't want to bring each blade back to new. They have well worn battle scars. As Yvsa said, they have stories to tell. To an extent, I will keep the patina, but I want to stop the active flakey red rust.

I am using an electrolysis method to remove rust. It is working very well and is cheap. Will do a post soon on this.
 
Moff8 said:
The only thing we had around was cola. I left the knife in the cola overnight. It came out with a lovely dark finish that didn't just rub off but could be removed with wire wool. Stopped the rust.
Click to expand...
I almost always have a couple of khuks setting beside me on the floor point down and leaning against my desk and such.
I spilled a CocaCola one night and didn't get it all wiped off, actually didn't think any went down the scabbard.
Later on when I pulled them out I discovered hard dark spots on them where the cola had dried, doesn't come off easily at all.
I thought about experiementing with it but never have.
You'd probably need to put a few drops of detergent in the Coke so that it wouldn't form droplets on the blade.
 
Hot sauce vs. rust - old shipboard trick for removing patina from brass. The vinegar is what's doing it. (Straight vinegar actually works slightly better than hot sauce and is far easier on the sinuses.) We used to soak vari-nozzles for firehoses in a bucket of vinegar overnight; they'd would come out looking like new. Worked great for spiffing up valves as well.

I don't know if it works on ferric rust or not.

Cool sword, Bill. The sword itself looks similar to some European swords as well, although from earlier periods. Is it possible that they have a common ancestor (by way of Spain and Morocco) or is it simply independant development?
 
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