SWORD.
Sayf, ARAB. Spada, IT.
Epe, . . . . . . FR. Espada, SP.
Talwar, Nimcha, . HIND. Katti, Tem.
Dha Khanda, . . „ Kilij, TURK.
Swords of E. and S. Asia are of various shapes and names.
In the Panjab, a metal alloy known as sakela is used for the manufacture of swords, etc., consisting of cast-iron, asbat and kheri iron, and foulad or steel, welded together. Occasionally, in Jammu, a small quantity of silver and sometimes tin is beaten into and welded with the finest sword blades for the sake of texture and polish.
In Isfahan, sword-cuttlers formerly enjoyed great celebrity, and numbers of swords are still manu factured there. The best blades are all made of Indian steel, imported into Isfahan in the form of small round cakes, which cost about two tomans each. Old Persian swords fetch very high prices all over the east ; for they cannot now-a-days fabricate blades equal to .those of former ag,es. When the blade has been hammered out of the koor or cake of Indian steel, it is put in the furnace, and kept there all night, subjected to the action of a low fire. In the morning it is taken out, smoothed and filed into shape, and then heated red-hot, and iunnersed for a few moments in a trough filled with eastor-oil. It is next polished, sharpened, and the hilt and scabbard fitted to it ; and the last thing done is to bring out the jowhar or damask pattern. For this purpose the blade is perfectly cleansed from oil or grease, and a yellow kind of stone is ground to powder, mixed with hot water in a cup, which must be of china or glass, not metal, and the solution laid on over the blade with a piece of cotton two or three times. This bring,s out the black jowhar perfectly. The scabbards of Persian swords are all made of thin laminm of wood joined together and covered with black leather, with a sort of pattern stamped on the outside.
The Bikanir people work well in iron, and have shops at the capital and all the large towns for the manufacture of sword-blades, matchlocks, daggers, iron lances, etc. The sword-handles, which often are inlaid with variegated steel or burnished, are in high request, and exported to various parts of India.
• In Cutch, an inch bar of fine English or Swedish steel is forged into plates 7 inches long, 1 broad, 'and one-sixth thick. Similar bars of fine spot iron are prepared in the same manner. These are smeared -with a paste of borax dissolved in water, and laid in piles of twelve—nine of steel to three of iron, or three to one alternately: Each pile is wrapped round with rag thickly plastered with mud made of a loamy earth ; then heated, welded, and drawn out to a bar one inch and one-eighth broad and one-third of an inch thick ; this is bent zigzag three or four tirnes, is aoain welded and drawn out to half an inch thickb, and during the beat borax is frequently dropped on the metal while in the fire. Two of these bars are next welded into one, and when about twelve or fourteen inches long it is bent into the form of a loop or staple. In the middle of this a piece of fine-grained file is inserted of the same width and nearly as thick. All is then welded together, and the blade is formed. To temper the blade, an earthen pot twelve inches wide and six deep is notched on the edges (the notches being opposite each other) with a file about a, quarter of an inch -deep, and is then filled nearly up to the notches with water. Oil is then poured on the surface. The blade being heated equally•to' a light red, is removed from the fire, and the point, entered into a notch on one edge, is passed to the opposite one, keeping the edge from a quarter to half an inch in the oil. It is drawn backwards and for wards rather slowly, till the hissing ceases and the rest of the blade above the fluid has become black. A jug of water without oil is then poured along the blade from heel to point. In order to take out the warp produced by tempering, the blade, when nearly cold, is passed over the fire three or four times, then, being brought to the anvil, it is set straight by striking it regularly but moderately with a hammer ; by this means a Damascus curved blade may be brought nearly straight.