Since the topic has been brought up. Some photos of something in my safe...

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And to answer the obvious question, I don't know a thing about it because it's not my area in the slightest. And the owner wants me to research it and possibly find it a new home...

Sigh.... I remember that picture from this summer.. drool. drool.. I so wish I were in the market.

I have a home ready and waiting for it provided that it is free :p

This is a kilic (kilij). You can tell both by the extreme curvature of the blade as well as by (and possibly more importantly) the sharpened false edge on the last few inches of the blade towards the tip. I am by no means an expert on Islamic swords and I can't read the cartouche you gave us such a lovely picture of but I would say this example is most likely Ottoman. Most kilic style blades were made in the Ottoman empire so while being merely a guess, it is a reasonably good one. The condition of the blade is really nice. I'll get Manoucher and some people from SFI to check it out and see if they can't read the cartouches for you. Could you give us a close up picture of the blade so we can get an idea as to what sort of johar (pattern welding) is used in the blade construction?

I'm finishing up some polishing on a sword today, but later on I'll try to rig up some lights and get some better shots of the blade itself.

And since I received a couple e-mails about it, I should be clearer on the topic of my intent with the sword. I don't own it but it will be on the market soon. The owner asked me to help her sell some things a while back but had "seller's remorse" so it went into the safe while she thought about it. Anyway, the owner has finally decided it is okay to let it go. So I'm trying to gather info so I can come up with a fair valuation prior to offering it up for sale.

Back to polishing until the back gives out... Then a handful of advil and I'll work on some better photos. Anything else anyone wants to see up close on this piece? I really should try to get some good photos to just give over to myArmoury fwiw.

I must admit I'm intrigued by the cartouche.

I love the Kilij, it's my favorite pattern from the mid-east.

Oh for some spare cash as I'd love to have this one!

Nice piece.

This has GOT to be one of the coolest Kalij's I've seen. Beautiful! My wife keeps poking me for one of these... she does Middle Eastern Dance, and of course they do their sword dancing. The run of the mill "swords" are such horrible garbage that she (Thank GOD!!!!) won't be caught anywhere in the neighborhood of one. I ended up buying her a nice antique tulwar, since it was as close as I could find at anything approaching a reasonable price at the time, and still have a real sword (She keeps having to remind others that "Hey, this is a REAL sword, and yes, it's SHARP!) Somehow I didn't think that a 1796 Light Dragoon Sabre would be quite right, even though the blade would be...

Of course, if I managed to score something as absolutely wonderful as this one, I doubt that she'd ever get to put her hands on it... CERTAINLY not before going through some serious instruction on it, LOL!

Gorgeous, and I certainly don't mean to belittle it by putting it in the dance context. It's just that a piece that nice deserves to be seen.

Cheers!

Gordon

Way Cool!! :eek: :D :D

A couple things really quick. First, would it be possible to get some closer/larger shots of the blade? I would love to see it up close in its entirety and maybe a close up of the tip and false edge. Also, what is the rule on cleaning antiques like this one? I know that the patination adds value and authenticity but what if there is active rust or lots of dirt, etc.? I ask this in passing because it looks like there might be something on the blade in the third from last pic (dirt or scabbard gunk?). Still a beautiful sword and I hope to have something like it one day. So I'm asking for future reference.

Cheers,

Hey folks.

First of all, thanks Alina for all your help. And by extension Manoucher of course. I appreciate the help as it is way out of my area.

After looking at other Kilij for sale, I think what I might do is put this up on ebay in the next few days. I'll put a starting bid of something like $900 on it with no reserve and let the cards fall where they may. I hope you don't mind if I use the info folk have given me here and I'll be happy to plug this site, Alina, and Manoucher for all the help on the translation. If it goes for a low price, so be it. It is really an interesting piece through my "Japanese sword" eyes. I'll take a few more pics probably tomorrow or this weekend as time permits. I'm doing this mostly as a favor for a friend of my mom's and basically I'm spending more time and energy than I could possibly ever recover. But it has been interesting to say the least.

I must admit I'm quite impressed with the ornate inlay on this thing. It has been extremely educational for me to study this up close.

Anyway, when I get the chance to take more photos I'll post them here first. Then I suppose up on ebay. And given how weird ebay can be, maybe someone will get it for a song...

Thanks again Alina, I owe you one. ;)

And Nate:

There doesn't appear to be anything active on it. Long ago stabilized patina. So it should clean up nicely from my experience with Japanese sword restoration. But it ain't my bag, as they say, so I'm not touching it. There is some gunky like stuff on it that looks to me like "scabbard poop". ;) Basically the scabbard is old and it spent the last 60-70 years sitting on a shelf in this lady's house in the scabbard. There is nothing on it that makes my restoration radar click on. But of course my area is Japanese swords and not these. I figured the best thing for me to do is leave it well enough alone and let an enthusiast who knows better deal with those issues.

I'll get more photos as I get the time over the next few days. Too much to do, too little time. For now... Time to go watch scooby doo with the kid... We have a daddy/daughter date tonight in front of the boob tube. ;)

Oh I thought maybe I should add that you might want to put the pics of the blade up before you list it on Ebay. I've done some scouting around and if it has a good wootz/damascus blade (which I suspect it does) then it might easily be worth 2000 dollars or more. It depends on age and condition of course but from the pics I've seen it looks to be in really stellar shape.