teh-tula vs koftgari on kindjals and other weaponary of the caucasus

Interested Party · 8th December 2019, 07:24 PM

Sorry for the previous lack of pictures. I was pressed for time. Now for some background to my question. Since I was a kid and saw pictures of kindjals in my grandfather's book collection I have been fascinated by offset fullers. This past spring I decided to learn more about kindjal construction and combed the internet for an appropriate piece that I could practice restoration on without guilt. I found a piece that had had previous restoration badly done. The seller claimed it to be from the 19th century Caucasus. It appears to me to be possibly a frankin-kindjal of unknown age and origin. On the back horn slab there is damage where the old rivets were ground off (far right picture). The blade had corroded and been cleaned on some kind of wheel then buffed. This process had left the blade scarred from uneven grinding with a very coarse abrasive. I decided to polish it out and change the aggressive channel grind to a flat grind that ideally tapered to the edge using all hand tools. I studied hundreds if not thousands of photo on the internet and Rivkin's book to create a mental picture of the outcome. As I began polishing it I noticed some periodic discoloration that I couldn't explain. Under 10x magnification what I discovered was traces of gold left in pits I believed to be where the cross hatching from koftgari had began or ended, thus being slightly higher than the rest of the cut which I reasoned had been ground off. Once I removed more damage and corrosion I saw that instead of cross hatching these were stimples. The left photo shows this under 10X magnification, the scale is in mm. I have not found any reference to teh-tula (the process of attaching gold or silver alloys to iron or steel via stimples) being used on qamas or kindjals. My question once again is what does this mean for period and place of manufacture? Does this make it Indo-Persian? The steel is very soft on this piece, changing my original idea of a flat grind all the way to the edge for better cutting properties on soft materials to adding a steeper bevel at the edges for more strength. Rivkin said in his book that the RC was often around 35 for wootz blades. Is a 35 Rockwell hardness common for the temper on plain steel kindjal blades as well?

8th December 2019, 07:24 PM	#7
Interested Party Member Join Date: Dec 2019 Location: Eastern Sierra Posts: 490	clarification and full disclousure pictures included this time Sorry for the previous lack of pictures. I was pressed for time. Now for some background to my question. Since I was a kid and saw pictures of kindjals in my grandfather's book collection I have been fascinated by offset fullers. This past spring I decided to learn more about kindjal construction and combed the internet for an appropriate piece that I could practice restoration on without guilt. I found a piece that had had previous restoration badly done. The seller claimed it to be from the 19th century Caucasus. It appears to me to be possibly a frankin-kindjal of unknown age and origin. On the back horn slab there is damage where the old rivets were ground off (far right picture). The blade had corroded and been cleaned on some kind of wheel then buffed. This process had left the blade scarred from uneven grinding with a very coarse abrasive. I decided to polish it out and change the aggressive channel grind to a flat grind that ideally tapered to the edge using all hand tools. I studied hundreds if not thousands of photo on the internet and Rivkin's book to create a mental picture of the outcome. As I began polishing it I noticed some periodic discoloration that I couldn't explain. Under 10x magnification what I discovered was traces of gold left in pits I believed to be where the cross hatching from koftgari had began or ended, thus being slightly higher than the rest of the cut which I reasoned had been ground off. Once I removed more damage and corrosion I saw that instead of cross hatching these were stimples. The left photo shows this under 10X magnification, the scale is in mm. I have not found any reference to teh-tula (the process of attaching gold or silver alloys to iron or steel via stimples) being used on qamas or kindjals. My question once again is what does this mean for period and place of manufacture? Does this make it Indo-Persian? The steel is very soft on this piece, changing my original idea of a flat grind all the way to the edge for better cutting properties on soft materials to adding a steeper bevel at the edges for more strength. Rivkin said in his book that the RC was often around 35 for wootz blades. Is a 35 Rockwell hardness common for the temper on plain steel kindjal blades as well? Attached Images