Caucasian Shashka from Dagestan: Question

Jim McDougall · 19th April 2026, 05:05 PM

Indeed Jack you have some nice items, especially the shashka, which is of course a full size fighting example, and of the form perpetuated into 20th century following Daghestani and Chechen style. As these are of course almost typically fashioned after these styles and often using old European blades, it is difficult to accurately assess them, especially from photos.

However, while as noted, most everyone who had serious authority in these have gone to other venues, aside from an occasional note. While I'm no authority (by far!) I still find these fascinating, and as often (as now) my resources on these are not at hand, by using the SEARCH feature old discussions with pertinent information can be found with great discussions now archived here.

While the 'experts' are no longer around, their words and expertise still are, in the archived discussions found using key words on SEARCH. I hope you are still here, but wanted to add this for readers who still might visit this.

As far as I can see, this example shashka likely is from Tiflis (formerly Tblisi) where many of these traditionally fashioned weapons were assembled by the many artisans there.

19th April 2026, 05:05 PM	#4
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,842	Indeed Jack you have some nice items, especially the shashka, which is of course a full size fighting example, and of the form perpetuated into 20th century following Daghestani and Chechen style. As these are of course almost typically fashioned after these styles and often using old European blades, it is difficult to accurately assess them, especially from photos. However, while as noted, most everyone who had serious authority in these have gone to other venues, aside from an occasional note. While I'm no authority (by far!) I still find these fascinating, and as often (as now) my resources on these are not at hand, by using the SEARCH feature old discussions with pertinent information can be found with great discussions now archived here. While the 'experts' are no longer around, their words and expertise still are, in the archived discussions found using key words on SEARCH. I hope you are still here, but wanted to add this for readers who still might visit this. As far as I can see, this example shashka likely is from Tiflis (formerly Tblisi) where many of these traditionally fashioned weapons were assembled by the many artisans there.