Kuban Cossack Kinjal Commission

[Jason Anstey]

Originally Posted by ariel

Jason,
Why did you decide to have a contemporary kindjal made?
Obviously, the blade is very, very pretty.
However, it must have cost a pretty penny. For that money you could have gotten yourself an authentic KKV kindjal, with history behind it.
Moreover, even Caucasian kindjals were rarely, if ever, made of wootz. Kuban Cossacks got their weapons from Zlatoust, not the Caucasus, and their kindjals were much more utilitarian.
Please understand: I am not criticising you. It's your money, your taste, your wish to collect whatever you want. I am just intrigued why would one go for a modern rendition when originals in a very good shape are aplenty?

Hi Ariel,

No problems with your question.

I started looking at Russian smiths out of interest and started reading about wootz bulat etc.

My collection is smallish. I have antique Tamahagane and Modern Tamahagane, I have an old Dha and a new daab made from Namphee steel. A nice modern made Keris from Bali and one day I will get a nice older one.

I now have a modern kinjal that is made from crucible steel, At some stage I will probably purchase an older Kinjal from Zlatoust at some stage, but records do indicate that bulat sabres were made there and there would be the possibility of the odd higher quality kinjal being made - but I only speculate here as this is not overly important to me at this point in time.

I believe that this blade is somewhat unique and will fit in nicely in my collection of different steels from different cultures.

As my small amount of knowledge increases I hope to able to judge what is a decent older kinjal from what seems to be a pretty crowded market and purchase accordingly.

I was expecting the decoration to be more utilitarian - and was surprised that it was so detailed, but I did give the maker a relatively open slate, maybe I set the budget too high, so he erred on the more elaborate style of fittings, I don't know.

So I hope this rambling explains a little of the "madness in my method"


Cheers

Jason