Question marks on a supposedly Russian Yataghan with Shashka grip and “bulat” blade?

ariel · 19th November 2020, 05:53 AM

Agree with Kubur: the blade is not Russian, but +/- Central Asia / India.

Anosov, alleged re-discoverer of Bulat, had some blades made. All of them were rather pitiful renditions of Shams, even though he claimed to reproduce tabans and khorasans. He got the instruction how to make Bulat ingots, but the mastery of forging them was well beyond him. Russian metallurgists and historians darkly comment to this day that there are still unseen examples in Russian museums, but that they are so secret that cannot be shown. At the very least Anosov is credited with a discovery that Bulat is an alloy of iron and carbon, nothing else. But even that is not true: Faraday knew it years earlier and tried to simplify the process by adding various other element .

After Anosov’s death, his former Zlatoust colleagues got hold of his written recipes and tried to create Bulat ingots. Nothing came out of it.

The story of Russian Bulat is fascinating and I think from time to time to publish it: it is a detective story, with industrial espionage, carefully choreographed publications, passion to be the “ first”, attempts of obtaining confirmation of the “ first- ness” from the foreigners, and a final hiding of the methodology so that nobody steals it. Science at its most human and worst:-)))

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19th November 2020, 05:53 AM	#5
ariel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 5,503	Agree with Kubur: the blade is not Russian, but +/- Central Asia / India. Anosov, alleged re-discoverer of Bulat, had some blades made. All of them were rather pitiful renditions of Shams, even though he claimed to reproduce tabans and khorasans. He got the instruction how to make Bulat ingots, but the mastery of forging them was well beyond him. Russian metallurgists and historians darkly comment to this day that there are still unseen examples in Russian museums, but that they are so secret that cannot be shown. At the very least Anosov is credited with a discovery that Bulat is an alloy of iron and carbon, nothing else. But even that is not true: Faraday knew it years earlier and tried to simplify the process by adding various other element . After Anosov’s death, his former Zlatoust colleagues got hold of his written recipes and tried to create Bulat ingots. Nothing came out of it. The story of Russian Bulat is fascinating and I think from time to time to publish it: it is a detective story, with industrial espionage, carefully choreographed publications, passion to be the “ first”, attempts of obtaining confirmation of the “ first- ness” from the foreigners, and a final hiding of the methodology so that nobody steals it. Science at its most human and worst:-)))