Among the swords of mainland Southeast Asia that are circulating between dealers and collectors is a group of old swords in excavated condition. Style

Scientific analysis of two Southeast Asian swords | Mandarin Mansion

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2021-06-23 14:00:07

Among the swords of mainland Southeast Asia that are circulating between dealers and collectors is a group of old swords in excavated condition. Styles within this group vary, and they appear to represent different time periods and cultures.

Little is known about them. Some of them are identified as from the Khmer empire of  802-1431 AD, while a group of swords in the History Museum, Hue, Central Vietnam are dated to the Tây Sơn dynasty of 1778–1802 AD.

These pieces are of generally low value, too low to justify thorough research from a commercial perspective, but sometimes I need to let passion and curiosity reign. It's why I got into this business in the first place! So when I had two in my possession I decided to run some scientific analysis on them to see if we can find out more.

XRF is a non-destructive method to determine the composition of a material by exposing it to high-energy gamma rays, after which it briefly emits fluorescent X-rays peculiar to each element. Older materials are not as homogenous as modern materials, so you can expect to get a slightly different reading at each spot of a single piece. Also, it tests the surface which may give different results from the core. Silicon for example typically binds to the metal when pieces are in soil for some time, while not originally present in the alloy. Elements lighter than magnesium cannot be measured using XRF, so unfortunately it cannot detect the levels of carbon in the iron.

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