Ethnographic Arms & Armour - My first Shashka

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My first Shashka

I stopped at one of my regular antique malls to see if they had anything I would be interested in and I found this shashka. I think this is a military model based on the markings, but I will let you all be the judge of that. It's a bit beat up, a little but rusty in spots, but that's okay with me. For a first example I don't think it's too bad.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pitt1999 (Post 282009)

Hello, Pitt1999

Congratulations. This is an excellent shashka owned by a Russian Cossack. On the one hand, it is a military model. But on the other hand, since the Cossacks are a sub-ethnos, and only the Cossacks were armed with such shashkas, we can to some extent talk about ethnic arms.
On the one hand on the blade in the cartouche are the Cyrillic letters "KKB", which are the abbreviation of the Kuban Cossack army. On the other side, in the cartouche, the letters "ЗОФ" - the Zlatoust Arms Factory. The numbers "1916" - the year of production of this shashka.

Thanks for telling me what the cartouches mean. I've seen examples of other shashkas before with these markings before and knew that the "KKB" was related to the Kuban Cossacks. The other examples I've seen didn't seem to mention the "ЗОФ" cartouche so I never knew the significance of it. Do you know what the two "A" markings mean? If I had to guess I would assume they were some type of military acceptance mark or proof stamp. Do you think it would be worth having this piece restored? Normally my stance on the pieces in my collection is "leave them as they lie (unless absolutely necessary)". For some reason I feel like this sword should be returned to it's former glory, even though it's just a simple military piece.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pitt1999 (Post 282043)

Two "A" markings indicate that the blade has passed the military acceptance mark. "A" is the first letter of the last name of the person who carried out military acceptance at the Zlatoust Arms Factory - "Alekseev".
If you are interested in my opinion, I would remove the rust stains from the blade as gently as possible. I do not think that it will be possible to restore the scabbard. I would keep them the way they are now.

Given the etchings I think you may want to avoid abrasives. This recent video by IPostSwords shows an approach for conservative chemical rust removal in detail:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhzNttK_-ko