Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
The dates you note seem to be correct, and indeed the British were no longer occupying Afghan regions formally, but retained suzerainty while providing notable subsidy in various areas.
I am curious, you assert that the Afghans by virtue of the advanced manufacturing equipment were fully capable of producing these heavy, notably uniquely channeled blades by 1893....which seems the earliest date known for these military swords........have you found evidence that this equipment included that for producing sword blades? Most images I have seen of the factory works show the production of the Enfield rifles. The emphasis on the rifle production had once compelled me to think the similarity of the hilts design and construction aligned with that of British bayonets, but that notion also remains unproven.
As far as I am aware, the production lines at Machin Khana were geared toward production of Enfield rifles. I am unaware of such fullering on blades for swords of this type, except perhaps for European forces such as sappers, miners and artillery gunners. It seems I had heard suggestions these Afghan swords were intended for gunners, but they also have been suggested for other issue.
There were other shops in the area of the Machin Khana as I have understood which might have conducted assembly of these swords, and as they were accepted by the arsenal the state stamp of Mazir i Sharif placed on the blades. This seems likely given the fact that tribal Khyber blades are found with these hilts, and state stamped accordingly......the are Gurkha kukris known also stamped with the Mazir i Sharif mark, and obviously not produced there.
BTW, do you have Dmitry Milerosov's 2019 book on Afghan weapons?
Photo-my example date 1893
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Mind you there were quality control and production problems in the workshops due to a lack of wood to feed steam engines, but starting in 1887 the Afghans imported an entire small arms manufacturing ecosystem, they made martini Henry rifles, breechloading cannon, even Gatling guns. They also purchased half finished Krupp cannons and finished them in the Kabul workshops. Edged weapon manufacturing would have been much simpler. Many workers from British Indian factories of course were also brought there.
The English scholar NR Jenzen Jones will soon release a book on the Kabul arsenal, sadly his focus is on rifles and cannon, not edged weapons
As far as edged weapons go these are what were made:
Officers Sabres in the Russian style
Shashkas
Generic Mamluke style swords
British style Mamluke swords (fine details of the brass casting slightly inferior to a British made piece )
British pattern bayonets
And of course those unique short swords