Indians For Guns

Some more pics

You sure have a discerning eye! Nice ones you've picked up.

Katanaji..... coming from you that sure is a compliment...thank you ! I must say that your insightful inputs helped me become literate ( edgewise....[pun intended} ). Please do comment on the work on the katar. Is it enamelling/bidri ?
and the gold inlay on choori is kuftgari ? ( sounds like kofta curry )

Hey Moin bro.. wasnt carrying my camera and anycase the vendors werent too keen to let me click. BTW I need a lonely planet guide to musafirkhana and perhaps chor bazar ? from you. So when are u taking me along

Tc and Cheers !

Vakilsaab, all you have to do is call. You have my number..


Regards
Moin.

Reviving this thread. Was at Jaipur. Arjun Singh Talwar Saaz was closed, dunno the reason.

Went to PM Allah Buksh & Son and God, wasn't I thrilled...after a few minutes of breaking the ice, Ahsan saab started speaking and the stuff started to come out. A couple of fabulous looking swords, no art work on the blade, but still quite sharp. Priced around 2.5 to 9 lacs range.

A few beautiful daggers (newly made ones) with fine silver inlay work.

His son arrived and by that time Ahsan saab was impressed with me (dunno know why though) and asked his son to bring out something that were for my eyes only.

WOW!!! 2 daggers with ivory handle and gold work on the blade. They were just exquisite, I cannot explain how beautiful they were. Ahsan saab said not for sale, said these you cannot even find in a museum, approx 300-350 years old...

Thanked him profusely and he requested me to come back for a full day at his shop. He will show his best collection and also will take me to his factory.

Posting his card in the next post.

Regards
BD

As promised, here you find the card. Indeed a nice place to visit if you really love edged things...

Thankyou Bodhijobs

There is a gun shop in those premises too.....supposed to sell some very beautiful firearms...

I did not see that, may be I missed it.

Some time in the latter half 2011 I had ordered a blade to be made in Udaipur, an indication of which I had talked about to some fellow members (the blade mad guys!). I finally got it around Navratri of the past year. Lethargy and work got the better of me so I couldn't share it with everyone. Here's the story.

Talking to a known sakligar, I put up a suggestion that a kilij-talwar hybrid design be worked upon. For the uninitiated, the kilij is a sword with an almost extreme curvature with a thicker and broader blade than a shamsher, and a distal with edges on both sides, while a talwar has a mild curvature and is singularly edged. The reason I wished this is mainly due to the fact that I have to use a sword in certain ceremonies about 5-6 times a year and I now want to 'retire' some of the old family swords. This one I could be able to carry at will comfortably. So we talked it out with some workmen who could forge the blade (I wanted a 5 fold blade) and do some fullering on it to reduce weight. One person accepted the order, although I have never dealt with him earlier, but he seems to have done a decent job! Apart from the fact that he took a year to complete the blade I can't really fault him. I checked on him numerous times while he was working on it, even supplying him with the dark brew( the inebriating variety), but all he told me was, be patient! The sword is in 5 fold mechanical sakela and smooth to the touch. Took him a year to do it but here's the final result.

Post the blade being ready, it lay around with my sakligar in Udaipur till I gathered up some money to organise the hilt, chape and locket and most importantly the gold to embellish it. This was in the beginning of 2013 before prices of the shiny metal crashed. Now we needed to finalise the design of the hilt. Discussions went on and on and ultimately we decided on a rather beautiful but difficult design to work on, from the Dundhar-Delhi area (Jaipur-Alwar-Delhi belt). The peculiarity of this design is the lotus petal formation on the hilt where the palm rests. I had seen an original in solid silver and thought about recreating it in blued steel with a touch of gold. The chape has another design favoured by Rajput patrons, namely the lotus, while locket has mild koftgari.
I now plan to give an edge to this sword.

A thing of beauty....a joy to behold...a work of art and a pang of envy.

no doubt it is an exquisite piece of art, how much it costed you Mr Katana?

Costs for this kind of stuff is rather variable. It largely depends on how much one wants to spend.

Yeah i can understand with the kind of craftmanship on each piece, but what i was trying to find out, without any kind of embellishments, how much would a bare Damascus sword cost?