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Old 10th December 2004, 09:58 PM   #2
ariel
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Location: Ann Arbor, MI
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Basically, Caucasian swordmakers rarely made damascus blades. It was just too damn expensive and time consuming and the profit margin was low. They did some differential tempering, though, and there are some Caucasian swords with real "Hamon".
But, as we discussed before, most of their manufacture went to Russian officers almost as souvenirs. Under the circumstances, there was no sense to waste time on quality blades: gorgeous silver scabbard would be the main selling point.
What then about really old blades, made before the Russian invasion ( military and cultural)? Sadly, they were remounted, reforged, lost, rusted.... The locals had so little iron around that every unused piece was recycled. That's the reason why one can find really old blades mainly in the Russian museums, and those were acquired long before the 1917 Revolution.....
The kinjals we see these days are mostly beautiful, classy and expensive tourist pieces.....
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