Yataghan for comments and advice

[russel]

Hello all,

A while ago I chanced upon this Yataghan at a more than reasonable (two figure) price. Having long imagined one of these was out of my budget range, I took it despite the condition. I hope members will add their thoughts and comments.

I am hoping for a translation of the inscriptions and stamp. My apologies to those who replied to my original post of this some time ago - a series of stupidy mediated delays hindered more pictures until now.

I would also really appreciate any tips on cleaning and repair. I am quite a novice. I have read many of the posts both here and on other fora, but to be honest I am rather nervous about it all, particularly around the gold(?) decoration.

The old girl has certainly seen better days. Apart from the obvious rust (which I think is manageable), the ears, while firmly attached to eachother, are loose about the tang; one of the bolsters has lifted from the blade; and there are some stones missing. I am hoping to get a jeweler friend to make and mount replacements for me. What stones/gems were used? I have seen examples with red or green stones, is there any significance to this? (stop, go... maybe I should use Amber! :-)

Most significant of the damage are the bends in the blade. Aaargh! I appreciate that I may never truely remove them, although I would like to minimise them as much as possible. The photographs don't show it well, but there is a gentle bend half way and slight of nearer the hilt towards. Overall the tip is about an inch left of the centreline.

Thanks for a fantastic forum, I look forward to your comments.

Cheers, Russel

[russel]

Close up of the blade decoration and stamp.

[kai]

Hello Russel,

Seems you found a sleeper despite condition issues! I hope others will chime in shortly.

Take your time with any restoration/repairs - keeping it well oiled won't hurt for the time being. A professional will have no problems straightening the blade; I'd suggest to refrain from doing it yourself (without the necessary exertise) though.

The koftgari work seems to be quite roughly done; the fullers look interesting though. Etching the blade would certainly be interesting but you need to be extra careful with the koftgari (also with any cleaning attempts)! I'd suggest you practise with some other blades first... ;)

Regards,
Kai

[russel]

Thanks Kai,

I certainly don't intend attempting any restoration soon. As it happens, I picked up a couple of other less important swords along with this one (I will post images of them for comment soon) which will be better suited for an initial effort.

As I live in Australia, I suspect professional sword straighteners are rather thin on the ground. Do any Australian members know of anyone who could help?

Thanks again,
Russel

[Tatyana Dianova]

Hi Russel,
Nice catch! From my experience, the fittings and blade decoration are typical Balkan, middle 19th century.
The condition is pretty good and the repairs are quite simple. Moving ears is a common yataghan problem, if it bothers you, you can put a drop of adhesive to fix them. The same with bolster: use two components adhesive to fix it back. The red stones are red coral. There are two round stones missing on the bolster on the blade, there should be red or green glass cabochons.
To clean the blade I would use very fine (1000) steel wool with oil, except gold decorated area. There you can use some rust remover like Flitz (you can use it also on the whole blade, if you do not want to use a steel wool). Afterwards use a Renaissance Wax for conservation and display. I would avoid etching on the blade – I do not think there is a pattern to show.
To straighten the blade you can make a simple device (two wood planks) the Japanese use to straighten their blades, but you should find the details for yourself – I have no personal experience doing it.

[Zifir]

Hi,
here is the translation

Best,

[Tatyana Dianova]

Hi Russel,
I have a similar yataghan, it has a date on it (I have translated it as 1265=1848). You can see how a missing glass stone on the bolster should look like.