Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

arsendaday · 2nd March 2016, 02:11 AM

Hi everyone. My apologies for being a little confused about the "Kris" & "Keris". When I was buying these daggers the descriptions on all of them had kris and keris in them, but I am learning and will be more careful next time. I really appreciate all the input and comments.

As for the blade bending; I am not doing it all the way, nor did I ever ruin any blades by doing so. What I am doing is feeling it a little bit, to determine if it is a quality steel or not. As most of you know the European blades are very springy and some of them can be bent well over 45 degrees without any harm to the blade. More over in Russian factories in Zlatoust and Izhevsk that's how they determined if the blade is of good quality or not, i.e. by hanging weight from the tip of the blade and checking how much weight it would take before it would bend out of shape. BTW the markings on some of the early Soviet Shashkas meant just that: i.e. 15КГ or 17КГ meaning 15 or 17 kilograms, before the blade would not bend back to its original form completely. So one CAN and SHOULD try to bend the blade, while trying to determine the quality of the steel, without being afraid to break it. And if your shashka doesn't bend more than 30 degrees and spring back completely than it's a fake for sure. I would not really hang any weights from my blades for sure, and if the blade is too old or valuable I just leave them be, but I have a very old Caucasian Shashka that can be bend almost into a circle without any damage to the blade. And bunch of other Russian and European swords and daggers that will bend to a certain degree. As one old sayings goes "a shashka should be as elastic as a vine..."

But I digress. I will probably start a new thread about the elasticity of the bladed weapons, with the moderators' permission of course, as soon as I have enough material to do so. In the meantime I will try to learn more about the Kris and Keris, because I find these weapons very fascinating. Thanks again.

P.S. Here are some photos of the markings that I was talking about. The first one is a real mark of a 1927 NKVD Shaska, while the second is a fake Shashka with a wrong mark, because it reads 18KP which doesn't make any sense.

2nd March 2016, 02:11 AM	#17
arsendaday Member Join Date: Sep 2015 Posts: 44	Apologies Hi everyone. My apologies for being a little confused about the "Kris" & "Keris". When I was buying these daggers the descriptions on all of them had kris and keris in them, but I am learning and will be more careful next time. I really appreciate all the input and comments. As for the blade bending; I am not doing it all the way, nor did I ever ruin any blades by doing so. What I am doing is feeling it a little bit, to determine if it is a quality steel or not. As most of you know the European blades are very springy and some of them can be bent well over 45 degrees without any harm to the blade. More over in Russian factories in Zlatoust and Izhevsk that's how they determined if the blade is of good quality or not, i.e. by hanging weight from the tip of the blade and checking how much weight it would take before it would bend out of shape. BTW the markings on some of the early Soviet Shashkas meant just that: i.e. 15КГ or 17КГ meaning 15 or 17 kilograms, before the blade would not bend back to its original form completely. So one CAN and SHOULD try to bend the blade, while trying to determine the quality of the steel, without being afraid to break it. And if your shashka doesn't bend more than 30 degrees and spring back completely than it's a fake for sure. I would not really hang any weights from my blades for sure, and if the blade is too old or valuable I just leave them be, but I have a very old Caucasian Shashka that can be bend almost into a circle without any damage to the blade. And bunch of other Russian and European swords and daggers that will bend to a certain degree. As one old sayings goes "a shashka should be as elastic as a vine..." But I digress. I will probably start a new thread about the elasticity of the bladed weapons, with the moderators' permission of course, as soon as I have enough material to do so. In the meantime I will try to learn more about the Kris and Keris, because I find these weapons very fascinating. Thanks again. P.S. Here are some photos of the markings that I was talking about. The first one is a real mark of a 1927 NKVD Shaska, while the second is a fake Shashka with a wrong mark, because it reads 18KP which doesn't make any sense. Attached Images