A Saracen Blade

Someone created this for me.  The blade is Damascus steel.  The Guard is metal from a meteorite.  It is wrapped in Springbok sinew and the handle is a cave bear tooth.

It was made to fit my hand.  I was asked to re-post this.

Pat Lang

Comments

[lina]

what? no scimitar?

[have skunk]

Fantastic, eloquent summation, Pat. Beautiful.

[Patrick Henry]

Pat...Thanks for sharing the Photo and description of your kinfe..Gifts like this from others are Priceless..and its an honor to own them..

I was once given a nice little Push dagger (Among other things) by an Army officer who served during WW 2 ..The dagger had been given to him by his Morro Scout when He and His men Fought the Japanese on the the Island of Mindanao in the Phillipines..

It has a snall blade similar to your...and small Curved Wood handle..and its enclosed in a Sheath that was made by wrapping pounded silver around wood..and then detailing the sheath with fine strands of silver and copper wire inlay..

He also gave me a Japanese Rifle..and a Hard covered Japanese Book showing Japanese Victories in the Pacific up to that time..That He recovered from a Cave on Mindanao ..during that event..

I feel Honored that he passed those items along to me and that I know the history behind them..

I will pass them along to my grandson...whose Navy Seal Dad was killed in Subic Bay in 1980..

[Sonoma]

The trout of Virginia haven't a prayer with that knife.

[chicago dyke]

it's...lovely. i think.

[lamp]

read as "do not F--- with Pat Lang"

[Montag]

In a movie about the Crusades there's a scene where an Arab demonstrates why the Crusaders will lose. He takes a soft pillow and challenges the Crusader to use his sword on it. But the straight, heavy Western sword was made for chopping and simply sinks harmlessly into the pillow. Then the Arab strikes the pillow with his lighter, curved scimitar, which slices the pillow open instead. It's a good analogy, as useful today as it was during that period.

[W. Patrick Lang]

chicago

It is just pretty. A work of art. pl

[Patrick Henry]

Pat..

Yes it is..its a beautiful Piece..I'm sure you are proud of it..

[Matthew]

You're not saving it for the most disappointing posters on your site, are you?

[confusedponderer]

Did you specify requirements and was it made on order for you, or was it a gift to you? Just curious.

[Peter VE]

Damascus steel is lovely stuff, I have fantasies about learning blacksmithing so I can make my own.

[parvati_roma]

A wickedly beautiful weapon - unique as the hand that will wield it.

[taters]

Thank you for posting this, Col. What a beautiful gift, obviously from someone who regards you highly.

Montag, I believe you are talking about Sir Walter Scott's fictional account of Richard and Saladin's meeting. Fiction or not - it illustrates the use and power of two incredible weapons, the broadsword and the scimitar.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The glittering broadsword, wielded by both his hands, rose aloft to the King's left shoulder, circled round his head, descended with the sway of some terrific engine, and the bar of iron rolled on the ground in two pieces, as a woodsman would sever a sapling with a hedging-bill.

"By the head of the Prophet, a most wonderful blow!" said the Soldan, critically and accurately examining the iron bar which had been cut asunder; and the blade of the sword was so well tempered as to exhibit not the least token of having suffered by the feat it had performed. He then took the King's hand, and looking on the size and muscular strength which it exhibited, laughed as he placed it beside his own, so lank and thin, so inferior in brawn and sinew.

http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/historical/TheTalisman/chap29.html

I posted Saladin's wielding of his scimitar and the slicing of the pillow over at the Athenaeum.

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2007/06/krak_des_cheval.html#comments

[taters]

Peter,
This may be of interest to you.

Wootz Steel and Saracen Blades
What is known today about "true" or "oriental" Damascus steel is that it was made from a raw material called wootz steel. Wootz was an exceptional grade of iron ore steel first made in southern and south central India and Sri Lanka perhaps as early as 300 BC. Wootz was extracted from raw iron ore and formed using a crucible to melt, burn away impurities and add important ingredients, including a high carbon content (nearly 1.5% by weight---wrought iron typically has carbon content around .1%).

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2007/06/krak_des_cheval.html#comments

[DH]

Colonel Bad-ass, reporting for duty.

[Michael D. Adams]

Jim Bowie and Bo Diddley.

As legend has it, the blade of Jim Bowie's first Bowie Knife was made from the steel of a meteorite.

The description also reminds me of a Bo Diddley song.

"I walk forty nine miles of barbed wire,

Wear a Cobra snake for a neck tie,

& live in the house by the side of the road made out of Rattle Snake hide.

Tell me now! Who do you love?"

Nice blade.
Much Respek mon,
Mike

[Leila A.]

But of course Arab and Islamic cultures as found in Damascus have no value and must be erased.

[Babak Makkinejad]

Col. Lang:

Where did they get the meteorite?

[W. Patrick Lang]

Babak

The materials are all commercially available to knife smiths. the blade was hand forged by the smith. pl

[walrus]

I have at home, the Moro sword with which the crew of his boat were planning to decapitate my Dad during the early days of WWII.

[DeLudendwarf]

If anyone is interested in "designing" their own knife or totally making one, I can dig around my computer for sellers of knife steels, specialty machine shops, etc.

"Design" is about 20% of the work, and the "novice" can participate with the help of the professional.
When the novice designs a cutting tool that works, it's very rewarding in itself.

Plus I was always afraid of bandsaws, hot kilns, forges, etc. Seen too many machinists missing digits or parts thereof.

You all take care.

Nice knife Pat.

[D.Witt]

Sue: Mick, give him your wallet.

Mick: What for?

Sue: He's got a knife.

Mick: [chuckling] That's not a knife.

[Dundee draws a large Bowie knife]

Mick: *That's* a knife!

[Montag]

Crocodile Dundee could have used it when he said, "You call that a knife? Now THIS is a knife!"

The legend of the Bowie Knife is that Jim Bowie was using a knife without a guard and his hand slipped onto the blade, cutting his fingers. Bowie decided that that wasn't going to happen again when he designed his famous knife.

[Charles]

Its not just a pretty work of art. It is a direct connection to an unearthly bit of creation, what with the bit 'o meteorite and all. Quite a gift - and by gift, I mean the art of the maker and not just the noun. You should touch it often