Heavy Lahore talwar

The ‘Talwar’ or ‘Tulwar’ is a typical sword only found in India. The hilts are known for their disc shaped dome hilts, pronounced langets and quillons. The ‘Talwar’  is noticeable for its curved blade like the Persian ‘Shamsheer‘ and Turkish ‘Kilij’ and originates from around the 16th century. The Islamic hilt style was a popular feature until well in the 20th century. ‘Talwar’ swords of higher quality were carried both as weapon and status symbol. Hilts and scabbards could be decorated with ‘koftgari’ or damascening in gold or silver, made of wootz steel and gold damascened, or even set with precious gem stones. The blades could be locally forged, or imported from Persia with fine contrasting wootz blades.

The hilt:
Of the so called ‘Hakim Shahi’ type, favored in Northern India. The hilt is made of casted iron with a round pommel disc ending up in a dome shaped pommel. The hilt is decorated with a fine koftgari pattern depicting elegant symetric arabesque patterns.

The blade:
A fine and well preserved ‘kilij’ style blade, curved with a long stretched false edge, as seen on Ottoman and Persian blades from the 16th century. The blade has two fullers running down nearly the entire blade and feature an interesting copy of a European wordsmiths mark to indicate its quality. The spine of the blade starts straight at the forte and narrows toward the yelman. the cutting edge starts after ca. six centimeters from the forte, a traditional Indian custom. The blade is in original mirror-polish and the forte shows a scratching pattern which the polisher left as his trademark, a common Indian custom. Both blade and hilt are preserved in excellent condition.