Very Fine Yataghan Sword with Twisted Core Steel Blade

Twisted steel or twisted core steel is a pattern  welded steel with a pattern of “stars” or “flowers”  resulted from welding of several twisted rods of steel layers of varying strength. It appears already in the 9-10th C. on Viking swords  and reached its peak in the Ottoman empire in the 17-19 C. The technique was extensively used for blades and gun barrels and also known as “Turkish ribbon”. It is also common on better Indonesian Kris blades, high quality Chinese swords and others. It is widely used in the modern blade industry wrongly referred to as “Damascus steel”.

The Yataghan sword offered here presents a blade with a beautiful pattern of Turkish ribbon composed of 5 layers of twisted steel rods. The blade is inlayed with silver decoration (True inlay) and dated to 1237 Hijri (1821 Gregorian calendar). The handle  bolsters and scabbard are whole silver very finely chased all over.

It should be noted that the sword maintained its fine  condition as it was not drawn from its scabbard for rather long time. As a result only the scabbard and the upper part of the handle are oxidized (patinated) where the bolsters in the scabbard remained highly polished.

Blade length 24 inches. Total (in scabbard) 31 inches. Fine condition. minor losses to the silvber inlay on the blade. Minor dents on the pommel.