here is the top wiped off
I got my Longleaf a couple of weeks ago. Looks like I lucked out, as mine is in excellent condition, both blade and handle. Came covered in thick grease as usual, but under the grease was only the slightest bit of surface rust, and it came off easily enough. The blade shows signs of considerable use and probably was resharpened multiple times. One area near the sweet spot is a little flattened; probably filed down a bit to remove nicks. I like that the bolster is steel rather than the white metal that is most often used today. Handle is small (about 4.25" long), but brilliantly shaped. It fits my average sized hand like a glove. The chakma and karda, on the other hand, had no grease and are so thick with rust that I'm not sure I'll even try to clean them up. They are nicely shaped and also have steel bolsters, which is a plus.
I'll try to post pictures and a more complete review when I have time and after some more cleanup.
For now I just wanted to mention that my Longleaf also has three numbers stamped into the spine to the right of the devangari. Whereas yours reads "199", mine reads "919". I have a guess about what that means. Perhaps others will have an opinion.
Most of these blades were probably made somewhere in the period 1890-1920. I'm guessing that mine was made in 1919, hence the "919" where the leading "1" would be left off as unnecessary, just as we used to leave off the leading two digits of year (1992 became 92) until the Y2K computer crisis came along with the year 2000. This might also explain why mine is in relatively good shape: It is a few years newer and probably saw less use and less exposure to the elements than some of the others.
Your blade's "199" was perhaps made in 1909, where the engraver left off the middle "0", just as we often do in dates: instead of 10/09/2013, we might write 10/9/2013. Not very consistent, but these spine engravings were done by different people at different times, and perhaps by Nepali who weren't accustomed to English-style numerals and date formats. Even today, several different date formats are in common use: mm/dd/yyyy, dd/mm/yyyy, or my favorite (for sorting purposes), yyyymmdd.
-- Dave
. I dont think there was any need to write or mix western numbers with Devanagari script at that time. They did do that on some British WWII blades I believe. You should check out some links on the first few pages of this thread from Karda and Spiral. There is a wealth of info on the timelines of these weapons and the script format and usage. They are saying the script on these blades are consistent with the way the Rifles and other weapons are marked as well. My guess is " shree 3 candra ga ng jha(?)/11". It looks like "Ganga" to me but I doubt theres a battalion named Ganga:thumbup:
