Ham,
I know exactly what you mean!
Still, I have never seen a Caucasian or Turkish saber-type blade that was longer than 32"! And this one, if corrected for the tentative shortening, should have been at least 34-35" long. Do you have anything like that in your collection?
The Caucasian calculation of the length of blade, as per Askhabov and Astvatsaturyan was as follows:
A. If held vertically in front of the body with the handle up, the blade had to cover the entire body (defence)
B. A mounted warrior should have been able to reach the ground with the point of the blade, while leaning to the side (offence).
Anything longer than that was considered excessive and making the blade unnecessarily long, heavy and cumbersome.
Interesting to know how big was the handle on the "Belgrade" sword: perhaps, you are right and it was a custom job for a Daghestani NBA pro
