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Originally Posted by The Double D
What makes a knife a kindjal?
Where do these knives originate?
What features make one kindjal more desirable than another? Do these features date a kindjal and how?
How are kindjals made?
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ok,,
questions ,,
1, A kindjal is a short sword native to the caucasus,, not a knife, later types would be classed as daggers due to the infantile handles and very pointy blades, these are decorative kindjals,, and were not often intended to be used,, other than as an orniment.. many kindjals , aspecialy most russian ones are of the dagger type,, and highly decorated,
...what makes a kindjal,, ok , there s several points that make them satndour, one is theyer double edged,, and normaly the blade is symeterican , also the handle forms the gard and the handle will only be afewmm wider than the blade,, or not wider atall,
the handle is rivited on with large headed rivites , the heads only show on the side facing away from the wearer..
there is a small tab on one side of the sheath for a loop for the belt, the kindjal is normaly worn stuch into a sash or belt,,
there is normal a metal tip with a point on it at the end of the sheath , and the sheath normaly has also a metal throat,, the loop retainer is many times solidered to the meatl throat,
the blade is normaly borad, and has grooves in it , many times the grooves are different on the different sides of the blade, of they are offset ,
the handle has a distinck shape , like that of a minerett on a mosque,,
the handle normal has only two rivets,
they can be big,, or small,, mostly they come in a size of about 45-50cms in blade length,,
2
the originate in the caucasus,,
are are used by all caucasus people ,however i would say there hom would be with the north caucasus people , just puerly because it is a fixed part of there national costume,
the circassians , aydge,, and other north caucascians intorduced these weapons to the russians through contact wiht the cossaks,, they were further populised by the dagestan and chachnya campaigns ,, in the 1800s aspecialy twith long lasting conflict between the avar antional leather imam shamil , as large amounts of the weaponry were purchased ,or caputuered , and they became popular items with the russian soliders serving in the campaing , ,
the russians produced several forms of kindjal in zlatoust,, the russian solingen , mostly of the decorative form ,, with the 3 finger grip..
3 , ok, well that easy,, if its in good condition and has got lots of silver and gold on it then its worth more,,
there is bulat and wootz steel kindjals,, there is damascus steel kindjals,, there is just plain old carbon steel kindjals,,
ones with mamouth ivory handnles, silver fittings, gold inlay,, jewls,, amber and coral,, many things mostly the quality determins the price,, and the blade mateiral , bulat would greatly increace the value of a otherwise norlam looking kindjal.
ok , they are made the same way as other knives and swords,
id upload some pice of how we make them but,, 1 i cant find my charger for my camera.. and this is dagestan , so its going to be fun to get a new one , 2.. its the week end ,
basicly we forge the blades,, or for the ones in stainless steel we grind them , then the etch them and put the handles on and make the sheath ,
and thats it,
some extra infor , some kindjals may also come with a small knif ein the shetha , placed in the back of the scabard, it is like a small steak knife, .
this is aspecialy common in dagestan ,
some kindjals are very crazy , ive seen ones with saws on the edges or scoloped edged like a bread knife,,
ther is also several frorms of curved kindjals, but they are another thing ,
there is many styles of appling the handle,, and the rivets are only one part, many kindjals also have a metal part to the hanlde and this is attached in any number of odd ways..
on the older kindjals ther blade is wide ofr hackinf and the tip of the sword the like a 4 sided sipke for stabbing through chain mail ,, the russiansnever made kindjals as swords ,, but only as decorations that could be used as daggers,,
later in the north cacasus the kinjals became smaller aspecial in the hanlde as ther were no longer used,, as the pistol had killed bother amour and kindjal skrimishes,, which involved a small sheail kindjal and a mail coat,, these were fought on foot,
with a colt pistol or a belgina copy anyway you could just shoot the guy in the face,, and that was it,,
... sorry we haven very good pics on our web but you can see some here,, sorry very few, .. we make much more but you see how much stuff our web has.
www.kizlyar.ru/eng ..
mostly tourist kindjals are shown... they neew no permit in russia to own ,
there is lots of other makers in dagestan , but none other have websites...
firms in zlatoust make kinjals also ,
www.zok.ru www.lik.ru www.zlatoust-air.ru ther eis many others ,, but mostly the good kindjals are mad ein dagestan,, the georgian ones are mostly bad tourist items these days.. as with azirbijan ,