Antique Tibetan Sword dpa'am- Circa 1700-1800- Hairpin Damascus (Thur)

A good representative example of an early and classic Tibetan fighting sword with the original scabbard and with a damascus blade.

The scabbard has the classic U-shape frame, with the lower part of the frame in iron and the remaining in leather over timber.  The blade is in used condition with the chisel type representative on Tibetan swords, generally from Western and Central Tibet, and less so of those further east from Kham and more influenced on and by Bhutanese forms.  The blade is slightly loose from age.

The blade displays the telltale dark and light lines of the classic Tibetan forging which necesitated the fusing of soft and harder iron in the low temperature high altitude forging conditions of the Himalayas.The damascus or thur pattern consists of seven dark and six light lines.  The blade would have been made from three folded rods or darker softer, called "female" iron  (mo lcags), alternated with three folded rods of harder lighter colored iron, referred to as "male" (pho lcags), with a single darker female iron rod centered between them.  This core is then surrounded by lighter colored female iron which would take an edge better.

The technique is emblematic of Tibetan blades, and is not found elsewhere in this manner.

Reference: LaRocca, D. (2006) - Warriors of the Himalayas- Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet

Overall length is 32", blade is 25".