And on the 8th day of the Swordvent Calendar, we focus on a style rather than a region. These pieces are both Indian with one coming from the South West of India and one coming from the North of India but they have a defining characteristic of having chemically darkened steel hilts.

 

This is a feature I have always loved, the older South Indian piece is just pleasantly blackened whilst the 19th-century piece has the remains of silver work on making me believe that the blackening was a nice contrast to a silver overlaid plating. 

 

Both of these pieces have been significantly reduced!