Description

This unassuming Kurdish dagger has an excellent wootz blade. Curved, double edged and with a high central ridge. The wootz shows in a nice high contrast of dark grey and silver lines and repetitive transverse elements reminiscent of "Muhammad's ladder" wootz, but with many more rungs than normally seen. This kind of work is thought to have been done by hammering depressions in the wootz, and then grinding flat again.

At the base of the blade is a distinct v-shaped demarcation of the heat treatment, with the hardened zone having become considerably darker. The v is formed because the center of the blade is thicker and cools more slowly when dipped in the cooling fluid.

Hilt

The hilt is made of black buffalo horn with two silver bosses on either side. On one side, the bosses are made of coins.

These are Qajar period Persian 50 dinar copper-nickel coins. The Royal Belgian Mint of Brussels minted such coins for Persia from 1900 to 1918. The exact dates of these coins are on the sides that are now obscured from view.

Scabbard

The wooden scabbard is covered with reptile skin, applied over decorative carvings. Notice how on both sides there is a v shape in the leather, much like the effect of the heat treatment on the blade.. At its end is a somewhat large wooden sphere.