Hand-Forged Kindjal Short Sword

Because that is how kindjals are made, and it is one of the surest ways to tell a Caucasian blade from a broad dagger shaped to look like one. On most European blades the fullers mirror each other across the centre line, and a blade where they did not would be read as badly ground. On a kindjal the channels are deliberately set at different heights on the face, run to different lengths and are often of different depths, and the two faces of the same blade frequently do not match one another either. Several explanations get offered — that it stiffens the blade against bending in one plane, that it is a maker's signature, that it is simply the regional aesthetic — and the honest answer is that no single one is settled. What is not in doubt is that it is characteristic and intentional, appearing across centuries of Caucasian work from many different workshops. Ours are ground that way on purpose. If you would prefer a conventional matched arrangement we will do it, and the blade will be less obviously a kindjal for it.

The broad straight double-edged sword-dagger of the Caucasus, carried across the region by Circassians, Georgians, Chechens, Dagestanis and others, and adopted wholesale by Cossack regiments of the Russian empire, who called it the kama. It is worn at the front of the belt, hanging vertically, hilt to hand, and it was the everyday sidearm of an entire region for centuries — a weapon, a tool, a mark of adulthood and a statement of what you could afford, all at once. The form is remarkably consistent: broad at the shoulder, straight, tapering in one long line to a very acute point, no guard at all, and a waisted grip flaring at both ends. What varies is size and decoration, and both vary enormously. The great centres were in Dagestan, Kubachi above all, whose silversmiths supplied the whole region and are still working.

Both words are used and neither is wrong, which is why we say sword-dagger in the lead. The kindjal genuinely spans the range: examples run from around twelve inches of blade, which nobody would call anything but a dagger, up to around twenty, which is a short sword by any measure. This one is at the top of the range at 20 inches of blade and 27.5 overall. Our own rule across the catalogue is that past roughly sixteen to eighteen inches a piece stops being a dagger in any useful sense, so we list it as a short sword, and the hilt is proportioned to match at 7.5 inches. The word dagger follows the type anyway because most kindjals sold are shorter and because the Russian and Caucasian terms do not map neatly onto the English distinction. If you want the dagger end of the range, order twelve to fourteen inches and we will shorten the hilt with it.

Because the type does not have one and never did, and the hilt solves the problem differently. A kindjal grip is waisted through the middle and flares at both ends, so the flare at the blade end stops the hand travelling forward and the flare at the butt stops it coming off the back. That is enough on a weapon used the way this one was: drawn from a vertical scabbard at the front of the belt and used at very close range, where a cross guard would foul the draw and catch on clothing constantly. It is the same reasoning that leaves a seax guardless, arrived at independently. It does mean you should treat the point with respect, because there is nothing between your hand and the blade but the flare, and a wet grip on a hard thrust is exactly the situation a guard exists for. That is a real trade the type accepted, not an oversight.

They are what a kindjal actually looks like, and it is the main thing separating ours from a representative example. Caucasian kindjals of any standing are mounted in silver — grip plates, collar, scabbard face and chape — engraved and then filled with niello, a black metallic compound of silver, copper, lead and sulphur that is melted into the engraved lines and polished flush. The result is a deep black pattern locked into bright silver, and it does not wear off the way a surface finish does. Dagestani work, particularly from Kubachi, is among the finest of its kind anywhere. On this type the decoration is not an upgrade in the way it is on most weapons: an undecorated kindjal is a working blade, and a mounted one is the object as it was understood in the Caucasus. We do this work in our own shop. One care note: never use abrasive silver polish on niello, because it lifts the black out of the lines and it cannot be replaced.

At the front of the belt, hanging vertically with the hilt at hand and the point down, usually centred or slightly to one side over the stomach. That is unusual — most sidearms hang at the hip or behind — and it follows from how the weapon is used and what it meant. Hung at the front it is visible, which matters on an object that announced status, and it can be drawn with either hand across the body at very close quarters. It also sits comfortably on a man on horseback, which the hip does not. The scabbard is typically narrow and closely fitted with a small ball or knob at the chape, and the whole rig hangs from a single narrow strap or a loop rather than a frog. Ours hangs on a belt rig that will carry either way; tell us if you want the vertical front arrangement and we will build the straps for it.

The shashka is the Caucasian sabre: single-edged, guardless like the kindjal, with a hilt that has no pommel but a cleft or eared cap, carried edge-up in a scabbard that swallows most of the hilt. Kindjal and shashka were the standard pair across the Caucasus and later throughout the Cossack regiments, and a man of means had both dressed alike — same silver, same niello patterns, same hand. That matching is the thing almost nobody offers now, and it is the single most striking commission we take in this family. If you are buying one piece, buy the kindjal, because it is the more distinctive object and the more useful at close range. If you are building a set, tell us at the start rather than after the first piece is made, because matching mounts to an existing blade is harder than making them together.

Because width is what makes a long straight blade stiff enough to thrust with. A point driven into resistance loads the blade along its length, and a narrow blade of this size would flex and lose the line. Broad stock resists that, and the fullers then take weight back out of the middle of the face where it contributes least, which is why a kindjal is not the heavy object its outline suggests. The width also gives you real cutting edge, so the weapon is not purely a thruster the way an armour-piercing dagger is, though the taper and the point tell you where its priorities lie. It is a good example of a form where the shape is doing several jobs at once rather than one, and it is why the same broad-straight-tapered outline turns up independently in the Roman gladius and the Italian cinquedea.

5160 high-carbon spring steel, brought to temperature in the forge, quenched in oil and tempered back so the edges are hard while the body of the blade stays springy. On a long broad double-edged blade the tempering matters particularly, because the weapon is designed to be driven and a blade tempered too hard would take a set or crack under point load rather than flexing and returning. Fine Caucasian blades were often made from crucible steel with a visible pattern, and wootz blades from the region are among the most sought-after in collecting; a modern homogeneous alloy is stronger and far more predictable, and we would rather say that than imply a metallurgy we are not using. It is not stainless, deliberately.

Yes, and it follows the record. Kindjal hilts are characteristically built with a full-width flat tang and grip plates riveted through it, usually horn, sometimes wood, and on decorated pieces covered with silver mounts pinned over the top. That is exactly how ours is made, with rosewood scales pinned through and the line of steel showing along the outline of the grip. It is a straightforward, strong arrangement and one of the reasons the type survives so well in collections. If you order silver mounts, they are fitted over this same construction rather than replacing it.

Sharp and ready, with both edges put on a stone by hand at the forge. If you would prefer it shipped unsharpened — for display, for a gift, for a group where a live edge is not permitted, or because of the rules where you live — say so in the order comments and we will do it at no extra cost, and rebate the point as well if you need it. On a guardless hilt with a very acute point, a blunt build is worth considering for anything that will be handled by visitors rather than kept on a wall.

In our own workshop in Tokha-3 on the northern edge of Kathmandu, Nepal, by around ten smiths, most from families that have forged blades for generations. Everest Forge has operated since 2010, and we forge, grind, heat treat, fit the hilts and cut the leather in the same building. A Caucasian weapon made in Nepal deserves the same word we give our bowie, our seax, our kopis and our cinquedea: this is not our own tradition and we do not pretend it is. It is worked from the record, which is why this page tells you plainly that a plain-mounted kindjal is a working example rather than a representative one.