Mystery Sword

[Mike W.]

My grandmother recently bestowed upon me my great-grandfather's collection of antique swords. Among the collection I found particular sword that was unidentifiable. The blade shape seems the match the Type Xa almost perfectly, though it's much thinner and has three very small fullers that only go up about 1/3 the blade. It also has a rectangular crossguard wrapped in leather, a grip that seems to be wicker wrapped, and brass pommel. Also on the blade are two moon like shapes. Does anyone have any ideas or thoughts on this?

[Sir William]

That's very interesting as I sold one that looked almost identical to that one, right down to the stylized half moons on the back side at the terminals of the two short fullers- when I'd gotten it from someone else, I was told it was a takouba, and it generally conforms to that.  As for how authentic yours (or mine) is, I have no real idea.  Too short and narrow to be a Type X blade anyway- the entire sword probably measures out to be about 30-32" in length or thereabouts?

A wiki on the takouba:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takouba

Turns out its a Touareg weapon.  Mine had cheaper hilt components- seemed almost made of thin sheet iron wrapped around a frame with leather accents.  I sold it a couple of years ago- had a nice leather scabbard with tooled designs that fitted the blade perfectly.  I still thought it was a knockoff.

[Mike W.]

I put it over my Albion Type Xa and the blades matched up in taper, width and length (though not thickness). It makes sense that it would be north african as it came with two 18th century shamshirs.

[Mike W.]

I don't suspect it to be of any high quality or worth. Though it is at least 75 years old.

[Sir James A]

The mystery seems to be solved rather quickly. Congrats on inheriting the swords.

[Sir William]

Can you do a side by side shot of this sword and your Albion?  If it is that big, its a good deal larger than the one I had; mine almost seemed as if it had been built for a child or small person.

[Mike W.]

When I placed the blades over each other, they matched up perfectly. Here they are side by side

[Don Jorge]

Very pretty...I want swords...but must avoid addiction...armor first!

[Sir James A]

The length and taper look the same, and oddly enough the hilt about the same length, though the fittings are clearly different. I think I see a single fuller on the Albion vs the triple-narrow fuller on the other. Here's what I found:

http://www.swordforum.com/forums/showthread.php?46098-Twin-Crescent-Moon-Makers-Mark

Originally posted by Artzi Yarom
Two points:
1. The faced crescent mark is originaly a mark of a German manufacturer from Solingen who produced blades to be sold in the area. (I will check for names and dates later). It was than copied by local bladesmiths as a mark of quality. The German mark is clearer and deeper, but the differentiation is still tricky. I feel that this one is a German blade, 1875 or about. The etching was done locally, at a later date, may be early 20 C.

2. Crescent marks apears on both Takouba and Kaskara blades as properly noted by Adam, and the reason is obvious, blades were coming from same sources to start with. The shape is however different: Takouba blades are shorter and tends to gradually narrow toward the tip. In the Kaskara blades the edges are are usualluy almost parllel to the very tip.

[Sir William]

Isn't that something...made at or near the same areas but in two different camps as far as ideology goes (not that it matters, just anecdotal); the similarity in size is eye catching for me as I'd said previously, mine was a bit smaller and not in near as good shape.  There's old stories about Christian blades being repurposed to Saracen ends but I couldn't cite any evidence to support that and it seems likely but also unlikely- likely because it would've been a cost-saving prudent move to resupply with existing captured weapons but unlikely in that taken as a whole, the Muslim world would've demonized and vilified any Christian item, be it arms, armor or what have you.  This is just my opinion.