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Post by birdman on Mar 27, 2018 23:40:46 GMT
I recently purchased a dagger (Khanjar) from India. It did not come with a sheath. The blade has a fairly uniform grey patina and a few rust pits here and there, but is basically sound. The hilt is carved from lapis lazuli, which is what really attracted me to it (it is one of my favorite gemstones). I am fairly sure it is an antique, as (1) it is still fairly sharp, while all replicas I have seen out of India (except ones that came through a reseller with a sharpening service) have had a 1mm+ edge flat on them, and (2) the grip is somewhat small for my average sized American hand, which is typical of almost all Indian antique swords and daggers I have handled (replicas made for westerners tend to be sized for westerners). It was sold as being a Wootz blade. I can see some faint striations that might be the remnants of an etched Wootz pattern, or might be scratches in the blade. Is there any way I can test it to find out? I didn't pay a whole lot for it - under $100, in fact - but I have gotten a few good deals on honestly antique Indian weapons before (a couple of tulwars and a katar), so price isn't necessarily an indicator of not being genuine.
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Post by Jordan Williams on Mar 27, 2018 23:57:41 GMT
I'm a little skeptical, but I'm also no expert:) . Have you polished and etched it?
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Post by MOK on Mar 28, 2018 2:27:46 GMT
Well, this picture might show the pattern faintly, possibly, or it might just be JPEG artifacting... I don't think there's any way to tell without acid, really. Matt Easton has a very informative video where he uses ferric chloride to bring out the pattern on a known wootz blade: ( The dramatic reveal is around 27:00. )
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Post by randomnobody on Mar 28, 2018 16:03:30 GMT
I'm also quite fond of lapis. I can't really tell from the photos whether what you have is possibly wootz or just some pattern welding and/or lamination. Some spots look promising, others not so much. As had already been said, best way to find out is to polish up a small section and hit it with an acid etch or similar. If there's a pattern, we go from there; if not, well, we still might have a decent dagger.
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Post by L Driggers (fallen) on Mar 28, 2018 19:10:49 GMT
It's not you got it to cheap.
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Post by torch on May 30, 2018 16:38:10 GMT
It doesn't appear to have the dendritic structures typical in wootz steel. The following shows the structure and pattern of two authentic wootz blades: i.imgur.com/Sp037rq.jpgI believe that the markings you're referring to are simply remnants from drawfiling the blade to shape after forging.
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Post by Sir Thorfinn on May 31, 2018 18:43:02 GMT
But a lapis handle, very pretty, even if it's not wootz.
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