An unusual Shaska

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by arsendaday

For all it's similarities to a Caucasian shashka it was never one. I am basing my opinion on the outer side of the handle: as it can bee seen it has a little bump just before the cross-guard and no shashka Caucasian or Russian has that. This bump is not added, because the blade tang has the same form.

I have placed red arrows showing the area I think you are talking about. You made an astute observasion. So the question is...would you still consider this to be a shashka? There are several thoughts on how this sword ended up being created, an Ottoman sword maker creating a shashka for Circassian troops but adding an Ottoman embelishment is one way I can think of. The other is that this was a kilij that was altered with the addition of a shashka hilt.