What I meant by "tourist pieces" is that the kindjals produced at the end of the 19th-beginning of 20th century were not meant for fighting anymore: the nature of warfare has changed. They were part of the uniform (Cossack units or ethnic units such as the mainly Chechen "Wild Division" of the Tsarist military) and were often viewed as an impediment rather than weaponry ( see B.E. Frolov "Oruzhiye Kubanskikh Kasakov", ie "Weapons of the Kuban Cossacks"). They were also a part of the national dress of Caucasian nations and as such, were worn mainly for ceremonial functions and they were also made as souvenirs and artistic objects (many still have the inscription "KABKA3"). Nothing bad or dishonorable about it, but they were just no longer real weapons meant for battle. Just as AK-47 obliterated the need in Kaskaras and Shamshirs, Mosin-Nagant rifle made the Caucasian kindjals obsolete....
Still, the memory of their real function was still fresh at that time and the quality of work was truly superb. In cotrast, after so many years of neglect and virtual ban on the manufacture of any weaponry in the former USSR the new pieces mass produced in Georgia these days have no meaning at all and, in my opinion, do not even qualify as collector pieces. Just look at their blades and vomit!
|