Hand-Forged Persian Dagger

Five names cover most of what you will encounter, and unlike European daggers they are told apart mainly by the BLADE rather than the hilt, because the hilts across the region are broadly similar — guardless, with a shaped grip and a flared pommel. The KARD is the simplest: straight, single-edged, thick-spined, tapering to a point, and it is the everyday knife of the family. The PESH-KABZ is the specialist: broad at the forte, then a distinct recurve where the edge dips inward, running out to a needle-fine reinforced point. It was designed to defeat mail, the point sized to enter a link and the T-section spine to drive it through without buckling. The CHOORA is the Afghan and Mahsud development of the pesh-kabz, usually with a more pronounced flared pommel. The KHANJAR is curved rather than straight, double-edged, and is worn across a wide swathe of the Islamic world with strong regional variation. The KHYBER KNIFE, or salawar yataghan, is the large one — broad at the ricasso, T-backed, and long enough at 15 to 24 inches that it sits between dagger and short sword. Our smiths build all of them to order.

Because the design solves the problem from the other end, and it is one of the clearest differences between European and Persian blade thinking. A European dagger puts a crossguard in FRONT of the hand: it stops your hand sliding forward onto the edge and it catches an opposing blade. Persian, Afghan and Indian daggers of this family put the work BEHIND the hand instead, with a flared or flared pommel that stops the grip sliding backward out of your palm when you drive the point into something. The two approaches assume different uses. A guard matters most when blades are meeting blades; a pommel matters most when you are thrusting hard into a resisting target and the risk is losing the weapon backward rather than cutting your own fingers. It also makes the dagger far easier to carry and draw, since there is nothing projecting sideways to catch on a sash or a scabbard throat — which is why these were worn tucked into a belt across the region.

Because on a single-edged thrusting blade the spine is the structure, and this whole family of daggers was built around defeating armour. When you drive a point into something that does not yield, the blade wants to buckle sideways, and what resists that is depth of material along the axis of the thrust. A single-edged blade can put all of that material into the unsharpened back, giving a deep, stiff section without the blade becoming wide or heavy — the classic form is a T-section, flat across the top and wedging down to the edge. The result is a dagger that is narrow enough to enter a gap and stiff enough to keep going. It has a practical side benefit too: a thick unsharpened spine is a surface you can safely put a thumb or a palm on to press the point through something, which you cannot do on a double-edged blade.

5160 high-carbon spring steel, oil-quenched and then tempered back. On a thrusting blade the heat treatment matters in a particular way: too soft and the point rolls or takes a permanent set under load, too hard and it snaps rather than flexing. Correctly tempered 5160 holds a point while bending and returning. It is also the steel family Nepali smiths have traditionally drawn from vehicle leaf spring, so our forge reads it by colour and by sound at the anvil. Every blade is inspected before it is packed, and if a piece reaches you with a fault in the forging or the heat treatment we will replace it or refund you.

Yes. It ships with a working edge, sharpened by hand and ready out of the scabbard. It is not a display piece with an edge suggested rather than ground. If it is going into a display case, a costume, or a reenactment group whose rules require blunt kit, ask for it blunted in the order note before we ship and we will finish it that way at no extra cost.

No. A push dagger has its grip set at ninety degrees to the blade, so you hold it in a closed fist with the blade projecting between your fingers and the force travels straight down your forearm. This dagger has an in-line grip and is held exactly as you would hold any conventional knife. The flared flared pommel can make the silhouette read as T-shaped in a photograph, which is where the confusion comes from, but it is a pommel rather than a transverse handle. If you specifically want a push dagger or an Indian katar — the H-shaped transverse-gripped dagger with side bars running along the forearm — that is a different object and our custom forge will build one.

Yes. The tang runs the full length of the hilt with the ferrule, grip and pommel fitted to it, so the assembly is held by steel rather than by adhesive. On a guardless thrusting dagger this matters more than usual, because there is no crossguard spreading load into the hilt — every force from the blade passes directly through the ferrule and the tang into the grip. A short or partial tang under repeated thrusting will loosen at the ferrule, and that is the first place to check on any dagger of this pattern.

Yes, and it is the most interesting commission in this family. Tell us which — a pesh-kabz with its recurve and needle point, a plain kard, a choora with a heavier flared pommel, or a curved khanjar — and our smiths will forge the blade to that pattern. If you have a museum photograph or a plate from a reference book, send it; working from a specific example gives a much better result than a general description. Horn, bone and ivory-toned grips are all available and any of them will move the piece closer to a historical original than rosewood does.

Yes. Blade length is selectable, and beyond the listed options our smiths will forge to a dimension you specify. Worth knowing that most historical daggers in this family are shorter than this piece — a kard or a pesh-kabz carried as an everyday sidearm typically runs well under a foot of blade, because it was worn tucked into a sash all day. This one is built larger, which gives it presence as a display piece and more authority in the hand. If you want traditional carry proportions, ask for them.

Yes. A tooled leather scabbard with a laced panel and a suspension ring comes with the dagger, cut around this specific blade profile. The ring lets it hang from a belt or a cord rather than sitting in a fixed loop, which is how daggers of this pattern were commonly carried. If you change the blade length on a custom build the scabbard is made to the new dimensions, and a plain finish or a belt frog can be specified instead.

Three materials, three routines. The blade is high-carbon steel: wipe it dry after handling and keep a thin film of camellia, mineral or light gun oil on it in storage, paying attention to the shoulder where the blade steps down at the ricasso, which a cloth passes straight over. The cast brass ferrule wants a soft dry cloth and nothing else — metal polish strips the finish and packs into relief work, drying to a white residue in every hollow that is very difficult to lift out. The rosewood grip and the tooled leather scabbard both want a light conditioner once or twice a year, and both should be kept out of direct sunlight.

No. Every blade is drawn out under a hammer, so the width at the ricasso and the exact line of the taper differ from piece to piece. The pommel is shaped by hand, so the sweep of the ears varies. Rosewood is a natural timber, so grain and colour differ on every grip, and the brass ferrule is cast and then finished by hand, so the crispness of the relief varies. Weights and dimensions vary by a few percent either way. We build these as handmade objects and a small amount of cosmetic variation comes with that rather than being a fault — but if a piece reaches you and you are not happy with it, tell us and we will put it right.