Enfield made Afghani Pulwar

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Great information Jim, We had a real go at Mashin Khana where at http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=21677 it can be seen in the sketch of one of the Kabul works the write up in miniscule print under says Martini Henry and solid brass drawn cartridges were made there... Mashin Khana was an attempt to finance a state industrial revolution...it failed! They also made Bayonets and such was the fervour to replicate foreign weapons that they scooped up other items of war including their own long daggers and stamped them for good measure... Indeed stamping everything with the Mashin Khana stamp seemed to a sort of sport... to the very detriment of skilled artesans who were sucked into the system thereby forgetting their age old crafts in favour of mechanical automation and the dreaded Mashin Khana. Bayonets for MH were turned out though quality was suspect ..See the bayonets at reference also.

I am checking for other weapons made there also...and I see at https://www.google.com/search?q=mash...utf-8&oe=utf-8 pictures of rifles and stamps often with the Kabul Jangalak factory but no Enfield marks...just MH. We are all aware of the home made versions made in Afghanistan with all sorts of spelling mistakes but I cannot find Enfields having been made in the Mashin Khana. factories..

Regarding Enfield Sword Blades please see http://antiqueswordsforsale.com/brit...t-issue-marks/ for some of the marks applied throughout the 19th C.