My first yataghan

[kai]

Hello Emanuel,

Will wd-40 and lemon juice have adverse effects on it?

Any oil/wax suitable to protect blades should be fine.

Be careful with acids though, since removing rust also affects those crevices and can lead to loss of inlay; prolonged soaking can also eat away inlaid metal (except gold) which makes matters worse.

I'd take pains to polish the blade by hand as good as possible (also be gentle on the inlay since this is softer than steel) and do a quick etch with vinegar if you wish to have a look at the steel grain. Make sure to heat the blade thoroughly after etching to remove all traces of vinegar (no need to neutralize since acetic acid evaporates easily).

Regards,
Kai

[TVV]

Nice acquisition Manolo. I would call this yataghan Balkan, rather than Turkish, just to be more specific on its geographic origin (after all, almost all yatghans are Turkish). I read the year to be 1216, which would translate to 1801-1802 - makes sense. Some of these have twistcore damascus blades, and all have an inserted edge, so polishing and etching as suggested by kai might be worth it.

[Emanuel]

Thanks for the info Kai! And thanks for showing your yat Norman. The tarnish was actually bluish red. I've used a mild brass polishing creme and everything turned white. It appears that even the yellow was in fact tarnish and the wire is in fact white and therefore silver. The inscription is much clearer now and on the far right I can read 1219 = 1805 in the Gregorian calendar. I can't make out the rest, besides an 861 to the left of the date.

I've put up a better pic of the inlay if anyone can help with the translation I would be grateful.

Regards,
Emanuel

[Zifir]

I think the date is 1216 not 1219.

The inscription is:

amel-i Ahmed sahib Mustafa

[Emanuel]

Hi Teodor, I hadn't seen your post for some reason. Both you and Zifir see 1216, so are we looking in the same place? The last four characters on the bottom right? I read the last one as a 9, 6 is like our 7 no?
Anyway, I'll defer to you both.

Thanks Zifir for the inscription. Manouchehr read the same on SFI and translated as "the work of Ahmed, the owner Mustafa".

As for the yataghan being Balkan, I had a suspicion this might be so. For the longest time I associated this type of ears to specifically Turkish, then Balkan came up and I was confused

I will clean the blade thoroughly and etch it to see what's hidden. I'll update pics when done.

Thanks to you both, and best regards,
Emanuel

- attached is a pic from www.omniglot.com and is what I based my reading on, is it correct?

[Emanuel]

After more cleaning and polishing, it turns out the fittings are all silver. It's too bad the bolster was broken like that.

[TVV]

Manolo,

I think I and Zifir might have been looking at the date before the clean picture. After you posted the better picture, I am more inclined to think it is a 9 rather than a 6. Which unless tha date helps you attribute the piece to a historical figure or an event, is not so important, and it is in all cases a nice early 19th century piece.

Regards,

Teodor

[Emanuel]

Hi Teodor,

The precise date is indeed not that important. I was just getting confused about Arabic numerals and wanted to be sure I was using the correct reference.

All the best,
Emanuel