Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

ariel · 12th August 2018, 02:31 PM

I found just now a wonderful example that was generously posted by Mahratt on a Russian forum : a 3-D photograph of a dagger from one of the Russian museums. It is defined as Zirah Bouk by the museum and Mahratt did not cast any doubt on this attribution.
Here it is:

https://forum.guns.ru/forummessage/79/2328051.html

The beauty of it is that we can rotate it any way we wish. It is as close to " I hold it in my hands" as possible.

The distal half of the blade is diamond-shaped and just a tad thicker than the flat part of the blade, no different than Artzi's example and the one presented by Rumpel9.

Citing Stone: "A knife with a point thickened so that it is strong enough to be forced through mail. The name is given to any knife with the point reinforced"

Citing Elgood: " Dagger with a thickened point to pierce mail"

I might have contributed to the confusion of this discussion by using word
" massive" in reference to the reinforced part. Sorry for that. The degree of thickening could vary just to assure sufficient mechanical strenghtening, and a conversion from flat to diamond-shaped with even minor thickening is mechanically enough to create a stiffening rib and prevent lateral bending.

Thus, Runpel9's example is a Zirah Bouk.

12th August 2018, 02:31 PM	#46
ariel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 5,503	I found just now a wonderful example that was generously posted by Mahratt on a Russian forum : a 3-D photograph of a dagger from one of the Russian museums. It is defined as Zirah Bouk by the museum and Mahratt did not cast any doubt on this attribution. Here it is: https://forum.guns.ru/forummessage/79/2328051.html The beauty of it is that we can rotate it any way we wish. It is as close to " I hold it in my hands" as possible. The distal half of the blade is diamond-shaped and just a tad thicker than the flat part of the blade, no different than Artzi's example and the one presented by Rumpel9. Citing Stone: "A knife with a point thickened so that it is strong enough to be forced through mail. The name is given to any knife with the point reinforced" Citing Elgood: " Dagger with a thickened point to pierce mail" I might have contributed to the confusion of this discussion by using word " massive" in reference to the reinforced part. Sorry for that. The degree of thickening could vary just to assure sufficient mechanical strenghtening, and a conversion from flat to diamond-shaped with even minor thickening is mechanically enough to create a stiffening rib and prevent lateral bending. Thus, Runpel9's example is a Zirah Bouk. Last edited by ariel; 13th August 2018 at 03:26 AM.