Possible Surmene/Laz Kindjal

[Pitt1999]

I won this kindjal on LiveAuctioneers a little while ago and I thought the leather wrap at the throat of the scabbard looked very similar to my other Surmene style knives. Although my other large Surmene knife has a much better looking wrap on it's scabbard. The punch dot decoration along the center of the blade reminded me of similar looking punch dot decorations found on some examples of Laz bichaq/Black Sea yataghan. The dark horn hilt scales almost looked like wood in the auction photos. At the pommel end of the tang there appear to be remnants of what I call pimples or blisters that I have seen on some other Turkish/Balkans knives, if there is a proper term for these little protruding blobs I would love to know. While examining the blade I found these symbols near the tip of the blade. I think it might be a date but I do not recognize the characters. The picture I have is the best picture I could muster, for all I know this could be upside down. Unfortunately this kindjal had a run-in with a belt sander or a grinder of some sort in the past so the blade has that ugly look to it. I added a size comparison to my smaller Turkish kindjal at the end. As usual all comments and questions are welcome.

P.S. This is more of an observation regarding manufacturing standards of the past than this specific dagger. I noticed while looking at the pieces in my collection that a lot of them are bowed or warped to varying degrees. In most cases it doesn't appear to be a result of use, but a manufacturing defect. My 21st century symmetry demanding brain is bothered by this flaw but given how frequently I see it in vintage and antique arms, it seems that people in the past didn't really care all that much.

[Pitt1999]

Forgot to add a photo of those blisters I was talking about.

[Ian]

Hi Pitt. I see the year 1898 upside down.

[Pitt1999]

I had a feeling I was looking at it upside down. I will post that photo again but flipped.

[Interested Party]

I like the stippled decoration. I am a little confused by the western Arabic numerals.

A little unsolicited advice, more for general reference than you Pitt. Some careful work with sandpaper could fix a lot of those machine abrasive marks. Either handheld paper or by creating a block with felt on it to hold the wet/dry paper and moving the blade similar to a Japanese polish/sharpen. I had a blade with very similar damage, but less rounded and no stippling to protect that finished looking like this. Use caution around the point they like to get thin.