Conducted archaeological excavations and scientific works of historians involved in the study of Ancient Rus' indicate the widespread use of edged weapons such as a knife by the ancient Russians. Boot - this definition was given to a small-sized blade that was attached to a warrior’s boot and was considered a concealed weapon. According to other sources, he was an indispensable assistant for ancient Russian horsemen when refueling arrows. The Russian boot knife was found in many burials, which indicates the high effectiveness and popularity of this weapon.

Slavic boot knife

How to carry a blade was invented, taking into account the peculiarities of what was traditional at that time for everyone Slavic peoples shoes - boots. These shoes provided the owner with comfortable and safe movement in the steppe or in the forest - they protected their feet from blows from branches or snake bites. The absence of laces was very convenient, which made it possible to quickly put on shoes. And most importantly, it was very convenient to hide a knife behind the top of the boot. Over time, it became a tradition among the Slavs to hold a knife behind the top of their boot.

What did a Russian “shoemaker” look like?

The design of the bladed weapon made it possible to pierce the enemy on the left side - in the hypochondrium area. Characteristics knife:

• Length - 25 cm.
• The curved shape of the narrow blade made it possible to reach the heart upon impact.
• The blade had a raised tip.
• Sharpening - one and a half.
• Traditionally, the knife handle was wrapped with a leather cord. It was designed to absorb sweat and blood. In combat conditions, this was necessary, as it prevented the knife from slipping in the hand.

• The presence of a lanyard - a special loop made of hemp or leather cord. The lanyard made it possible to quickly remove the weapon from behind the top of the boot and prevented the risk of losing a knife during the battle. The boot blade, if equipped with a lanyard, could be used with a different grip.

In its structure, the blade resembled the tusks of a wild boar, which, when attacking, strikes from the bottom up, lifting the enemy. According to this principle lethal effect and a Russian boot knife was designed. The photo below shows the design features of traditional edged weapons.

Wearing Features

One of the advantages of carrying a knife in a boot was the ability to get it out in time. For this purpose, the blade was most often located in the right boot, and for left-handers - in the left. The knife was attached in different ways:

• the sheath was sewn to the inside of the boot;
• a sheath with a blade was tied to the leg;
• A special pocket for a sheath was attached to the top of the trousers.

The rules were followed:

• the handle must be hidden behind the top of the boot;
• if a lanyard was present, it could be visible;
• Only a small part of the pommel could stick out outside the boot.

Boot knife from 1917 to 1945

From the time of the revolution until the end of World War II, one of the attributes of the criminal element was a knife. The traditional way of wearing boots was now applied to finches, which were also convenient to hold behind the top of the boot. This arrangement freed up the hands and hid the bladed weapon from prying eyes. When carried in this way, a knife was an ideal means of protection for criminals in various hopeless situations.

During the Second World War, this knife was also widely used by Soviet soldiers. The boot blade had undergone some changes by this time:

• length was 250 mm;
• butt thickness - 7 mm;
• the blade was tetrahedral, convex and double-edged.

This form made it possible to inflict mortal wounds on the enemy. The blows were delivered between the ribs, hitting the enemy on the spot.

Modern “shoemakers” are even more different from traditional models. Now such knives are classified as utility knives. They are provided with one-sided sharpening and a spine thickness not exceeding 0.4 cm. According to these parameters, a boot knife is not a bladed weapon, the acquisition of which requires the appropriate permit. Now anyone can buy a “shoemaker” if they wish.

Cossack boot knife

Cossacks and weapons are inseparable concepts. A knife, as one of the elements of equipment, is considered an invariable companion of every warrior.

The differences between the Cossack model of the “shoemaker” and the traditional Russian one are in the following parameters:

• the total length of the Cossack knife is 2 cm longer and amounts to 29 cm;
• handle length of Cossack bladed weapon - 13 cm;
• blade length - 16 cm;
• the presence of the mark of the blacksmith-manufacturer on the Cossack blade;
• the wooden handle is equipped with a braided lanyard;
• For the manufacture of Cossack sheaths, bovine leather is used.

“Will and Faith”

One of the very impressive examples of Cossack “shoemakers” is the “Will and Faith” knife. This product is made of Damascus steel. It contains elements of gold and silver. The knife is characterized by highly artistic design, which indicates talent, skill, perseverance and love for the knife as a reliable assistant.

The wooden handle is made from expensive species. The sheath contains a special leather lining, which ensures smooth insertion of the blade and its fixation, preventing loosening. At the top of the handle there is a recessed nut containing a ring to which a braided leather cord is attached. On the surface of the knife there is an image of a Russian floral ornament. Nearby, in the style of Church Slavonic writing, there is an inscription “Will and Faith”. The high-quality processing of metal and wood is admirable. This Cossack boot knife can be considered an example of decorative and applied art.

A boot knife made by modern professional craftsmen will be an excellent gift for a hunter, tourist, fisherman or collector.

The knife is a symbol and a necessity. The knife was and remains one of the most important items, which accompany a person throughout his entire history. Nowadays we sometimes stop noticing it, because the knife dissolves among many other things surrounding a person’s life. But in the distant past, a knife was often the only metal object that a person possessed. was an attribute of any free person. A knife hung on every woman's belt. A child, at a certain age, received a knife that he never parted with. Why was this subject given such importance?

The knife was not only an everyday functional item. Ancient people perceived the world through the prism of magic. Therefore, the magical functions of the knife, which our ancestors believed in, were no less important. He had many magical properties, which he shared with his owner, and they tried to never give him into the wrong hands. They swore on it. They protected themselves from witchcraft. The groom gave it to the bride upon engagement. When a person died, the knife went with him and was placed in the owner’s grave.

This is, of course, a somewhat idealized picture. IN real life they lost knives and bought new ones, lent them, gave them as gifts, and those that had served their purpose - knives sharpened almost to the butt - were simply thrown away. The knife was a universal and most common tool. This is confirmed by the fact that knives are often the most common finds during excavations. In Novgorod, at the Nerevsky excavation site alone, 1,440 copies of knives were found. During excavations of ancient Izyaslav, destroyed by the Tatars, 1358 knives were found. The numbers are impressive, aren't they? It seemed like the knives were simply lost in batches. But this is of course not true. Even if we take into account the corrosion of metal that has lain in the ground for hundreds of years, it is still clear that many knives are chipped and broken, that is, they have lost their working functions. This suggests the conclusion that the quality of the products of ancient blacksmiths was not very high... In fact, their quality was relative - just like in our time. There were high-quality knives that were expensive, and there were cheap consumer goods. The first category included precisely those knives that in Rus' any free person, regardless of his gender, wore on his belt. Such knives were of quite high quality by modern standards. They cost good money. The second category consisted of those knives whose quality was incomparably lower than Chinese stainless steel on the layouts. They really often just broke down. When this happened, they were given to blacksmiths for reforging. And more often, out of frustration, they threw it “to hell, out of sight.” But we will not allow ourselves disrespectful remarks addressed to ancient Russian blacksmiths. Their capabilities and technical arsenal were very limited. Our contemporary, even a very high-level blacksmith, deprived of high-quality steel and tools for processing it, will be able to do little in such conditions. Therefore, let us give a deep bow to the ancient blacksmiths - they are the best because they were the first!

Geography

Ancient Rus' occupied a vast territory. So huge that many question whether there was such a state at all? A lot suggests that Rus' was essentially a huge trading enterprise, like the “Hanseatic League”. (Or a closer example is the “Hudson's Bay Company”, which existed in North America in the 18th century). The main goal of such enterprises was the enrichment of merchants and rulers, the exploitation of natural and human resources in territories that were difficult to manage due to their enormous size. “The core of the state of Rus' (called by the cabinet term “ Kievan Rus“was, as you know, a relatively small region of the middle Dnieper region - from the Desna to Russia, which led the process of the birth of feudal statehood over a vast space of Eastern Europe- from the Vistula to the Volga and from the Baltic to the Black Sea” (B. A. Rybakov).

An indirect confirmation of this assumption can be the essay “On the Administration of the Empire” by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (905-959), which mentions the lands of “Inner Rus'” (only!) when it concerns the territories immediately surrounding Kiev.

The author of “Getika” (“History of the Goths”), Jordanes, who exalted the Gothic “Empire of Germanaric” in the mid-6th century, describes a vast territory from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea, listing the many tribes that lived on it. There was never such a huge empire of the Goths, but the decoding of the names of the tribes and their order of listing in the book allowed E. Ch. Skrezhinskaya to assume that Jordan took the guidebooks that once existed as the basis for his description. (Greek “Itineraria”). They described the lands from the Baltic to the Caucasus. All these lands in the “itineraria” had the ethnic names of the tribes that lived on them. The existence of such guidebooks already in the early Middle Ages testifies to the close trade ties of many peoples of Eastern Europe.

Many people took part in the creation of the union on the territory now called “Ancient Rus'”. different nations and tribes: Slavs, Finno-Ugrians, Balts, Varangians, steppe nomads, Greeks. Sometimes it even seems that it is difficult to give the palm to any of them! But still we will proudly hand it over to our Slavic ancestors. Their language and culture became the basis of the territorial entity that entered the history of human civilization under the name “Rus”. But it has absorbed a lot from other peoples entering or coming into contact with it. Blacksmithing in particular is bright that example.

From time immemorial in Rus' there have been two competing centers. These were Kyiv and Novgorod (later Moscow took over the baton of Novgorod). Sometimes they found ways of mutual understanding, but more often this was not the case. The lands of Kyiv and Novgorod were too different. Different nature, different neighbors. Too much distance separated them from each other. A one-way trip could take a month or more. At the same time, along the road we often met people who were not Slavs at all, and it was impossible to ignore this by passing their lands.

These differences are confirmed by the peculiarities of blacksmithing in Kyiv and Novgorod. (And in a broader sense, these are the southern and northern lands of ancient Rus'). Therefore, it is quite difficult to talk about ancient Russian knives “in general.” We will have to conditionally divide our story into two parts and talk separately about the knives that were made and used in different places- in the north and south. The time of their existence is also very important aspect. Over the entire existence of Kievan Rus, knives have undergone such an evolution that it is simply impossible to talk about some kind of generalized “Old Russian Knife”. It was always an object related to a specific place and time. By the way, as a result of this evolution, two different directions in which the production of knives developed in the north and south came closer and, over time, a certain general type knife But this fact is not characteristic exclusively of Rus'. This happened throughout Europe. The determining factors for this phenomenon were not the ethnicity of the knife, but the economic feasibility of its production, plus the available natural resources.

Among the studies in the field of ancient Russian blacksmithing, the most fundamental and complete work remains the work carried out by the famous Soviet archaeologist B. A. Kolchin. He was an unusually inquisitive researcher. Already in his declining years, he found my teacher V.I. Basov and spent a lot of time in his forge, forcing him to melt iron in the house and forge ancient Russian knives. He carefully recorded the results of his observations.

B.A. Kolchin subjected to microstructural analysis a huge number of archaeological finds dating back to the era of “Ancient Rus'”. This allowed him to draw important conclusions regarding changes in design and manufacturing technology, and to divide knives by type of functional purpose. True, he conducted his research, as a rule, on the basis of Novgorod archaeological material. The result of this one-sided approach was somewhat hasty conclusions regarding the uniformity of blacksmithing techniques and methods throughout ancient Rus', including its southern part. But the fact is that this was what was required of him then. He wrote his work in the 50s, and this was the time when the idea of ​​“Great and Mighty Rus'” was developing. Within its boundaries, everyone had to understand each other perfectly and form a single whole of one enormous people, in some way subtly reminiscent of the Soviet one. The Finno-Ugrians were generally mentioned in passing. Well, how could it be that someone taught Russians how to forge?

Thank God, Kolchin’s students and followers lived not only in Leningrad and Moscow. Some of them firmly settled in Kyiv. As befits scientists, they undertook a thorough study of local material and made interesting observations that in some places complement and sometimes refute the master’s conclusions. G. A. Voznesenskaya, D. P. Nedopako and S.V. Pankov, employees of the Kyiv Institute of Archeology, substantiated with their scientific works back in Soviet times historical independence and originality of Southern Rus', which is clearly manifested in blacksmithing.

Neighbours

The Novgorod Slavs lived next to the Finno-Ugric tribes (Livs, Ests, Vod, Izhora, Korela, Ves, etc.). In addition, Scandinavians actively visited them. Both of them were noble blacksmiths, especially the first ones. Just look at the legendary blacksmith Ilmarinen from the famous Finnish epic “Kalevala”!

It is somewhat inappropriate to talk about the Slavic influence on the northern region in blacksmithing; it was more likely that the Slavs were apprentices here. The Finno-Ugric tribes had such a high level of development of blacksmithing that you can’t stop admiring them when you look at their creations. And this should not be surprising!

First of all, the reason for their mastery is the wealth of natural resources. There is a lot of firewood - burn birch charcoal as much as you need. There are swamps everywhere, which means in them iron ore. In short, there is a place for working people to roam. But it’s difficult to grow anything here. The earth produces meagerly, the winters are long and cold. But I still want to eat. Therefore, all human energy and ingenuity went into the development of crafts.

Quality products found buyers everywhere. Kievan Rus, with its strong emphasis on international trade, helped establish a stable market. Many tribes fed blacksmithing. Looking ahead, I can say that Novgorod products in general were best quality than Kyiv ones. But this is not the merit of the Slavs who began to settle in this northern region. They came here possessing the same level of blacksmithing art as the Slavs of the Dnieper region. But having begun to develop the lands that would later be called Novgorod and Pskov, the Slavs learned a lot from their neighbors, the Finno-Ugric peoples, in the field of blacksmithing technologies. And local nature helped them translate this knowledge into thousands of beautiful things, without particularly worrying about saving charcoal and metal.

Southern Rus'. Little iron and wood. A lot of food.

Unlike their northern neighbors, the Slavs living in the Dnieper region (the territory of present-day Ukraine) were not distracted by all sorts of crafts there, but traditionally engaged in a simple and understandable task - growing “their daily bread.” Natural conditions and available resources contributed to this particular activity here. Blacksmithing has always been a side business for them, designed to serve the main line of activity - Agriculture. Therefore, all products of the Dnieper Slavs were as simple and functional as possible. In other words, it was a balancing act between spending the least amount of effort and getting the maximum result.

Living conditions dictated precisely this approach. In the forest-steppe zone, there is little forest suitable for burning coal. But there are a lot of people living here and everyone needs firewood for heating in the winter. There are also, thank God, fewer swamps than in the north. Iron is often not locally produced but imported - hence it was more expensive. Steel is generally in short supply. There was no time to become sophisticated in the craft: “there is stubble on the nose, but we still need to forge two hundred and fifty sickles for the whole district!”

Nevertheless, the blacksmiths here were not bad either. They forged everything that the local population needed. They could, if necessary, forge a sword. They were also familiar with blacksmithing techniques common in the north and used them when there was time and there was enough coal. The blacksmith craft of the Dnieper region in those days was characterized by very archaic techniques, but this was due to the desire for simplicity. The roots of these techniques go back to the ancient Celtic culture, Scythia and Byzantium. It was with these peoples that the ancient Slavs of the Dnieper region came into contact and at one time adopted blacksmithing skills from them. The nature of their forging production was focused on domestic consumption. The blacksmith, first of all, served the agricultural community in which he lived and of which he was an integral part. Its access to the foreign market was limited, and it was hardly possible to establish any more or less constant production for “export” given the meager raw material base. At the same time, there is always a demand for grain and other food products. And if you need a good knife, you can spend money and buy the one that the northerners brought. We generally tend to underestimate the trade relations of those times. Everything you needed could be bought then. The main thing, as they say, “would be for what and why.”

So, when comparing technologies, let’s not tip the scales in someone’s favor here. The northern and southern Slavs were parts of a single huge territorial entity, much larger than the territory now traditionally belonging to the state of Kievan Rus. Living in this huge system, consisting of a wide variety of components, each person nevertheless belonged to a specific place and did what Nature dictated to him and life itself suggested.

Photo 1

The shape of the blade was determined by two factors. The first is, of course, the function of the knife, its purpose. The second important factor, often not taken into account, is manufacturing technology. At a time when there was little iron, steel was a rarity and the preparation of coal took a lot of effort and time - everything was aimed at optimizing the technology and reducing the cost of labor and materials to a minimum. Northern blacksmiths, masters at that, still did not make an exception. They knew their limits in their pursuit of sophistication in forging technology. Therefore, the shape of the blade often turned out to be the result of a certain sequence of forging operations, which seemed to be the most rational at that time.

In principle, the silhouette of the bulk of ancient Russian knives resembles modern ones. The back could be straight, it could bend up or down, just like now, depending on the purpose and personal preferences. The main difference between Old Russian knives is their pronounced wedge-shape in all directions: length and thickness (Photo 01)

Why were ancient knives so different from modern ones? Now, in most cases, when talking about a forged knife, we mean a plate flattened under a pneumatic hammer, from which the final shape of the blade is then turned using abrasive wheels or cutters. In ancient times, such technology did not exist (you can’t grind off much metal on a sandstone abrasive wheel with a manual or foot drive). But most importantly, the craftsmen strived to ensure that not a single grain of precious iron was wasted. It's hard for us to understand because we are surrounded by mountains of scrap metal. For an ancient blacksmith, the modern approach to making a knife is tantamount to making a rolling pin out of a log, and turning everything “else” into chips. Therefore, in ancient times knives were actually forged. The knife blank was pulled with a hammer to the very tip, giving it the desired shape and cross-section, so that in the end all that remained was to slightly straighten it on a wet sharpener (Photo 2). (In fairness, it should be noted that doing this with modern alloy steels is quite problematic. They are hard and deform much worse when forged. In addition, modern alloy steels have a much narrower heating temperature range for forging than the steel with which we were dealing ancient blacksmiths. He overheated it a little and “goodbye, the piece of iron is gone!”)

Photo 2. Forging sequence

This wedge-shaped blade shape in some way compensated for the softness of the material from which the knife was made. And often it was ordinary iron. The wedge in the cross-section of the blade corresponded to the sharpening angle and was 15-25 degrees. Thus, the cutting edge was supported by the entire cross-section of the blade, right up to the butt. The vast majority of Slavic knives of the 10th-12th centuries found by archaeologists are, according to modern ideas, very small. The length of their blades does not exceed 10 cm, the width is about 2 cm, but the massive butt at its widest point reaches 6 mm. (The average blade size of these knives lies within 7-8 cm). When sharpening such a knife, it was placed on the stone with the entire side plane of the blade. Therefore, simultaneously with sharpening, the side edges of the blade were constantly polished and, consequently, cleaned from traces of corrosion. A good option for keeping a knife always in excellent condition in the absence of stainless steels! (By the way, with this method of sharpening a knife, the cross-section of the blade gradually took on the shape of a convex wedge and the sharpening angle gradually increased. This happened because while sharpening his knife, the owner tried to press the blade harder against the stone).

Photo 3

Let's look at knives from the point of view of their functional purpose. B.A. Kolchin, based on the archaeological material available to him, divided all ancient Russian knives into eight types, depending on their purpose.

The first type is household “kitchen” knives. The handles, wooden and bone, are purely functional and therefore without any special decorations. Characteristic sign of these knives (according to Kolchin) - the axis of the handle is parallel to the straight spine of the blade. My opinion is that this feature is secondary for kitchen knives. Functional purpose is determined by the line of the blade, and the inclination of the butt in this case is secondary - the straighter the blade, the further it goes down (Photo 03).

Photo 4

The second type is household “table” knives. They differ from the first ones in that they were larger and longer, and their handles were decorated with various ornaments (Photo 4).

It is difficult to say now how different these knives are in purpose. And the theoretical “kitchen-dining” orientation of the use of these knives seems to me not entirely appropriate in this case. In my opinion, this is one type - a universal knife, the so-called “household knife” according to the police classification, popularly called simply “working”. And the sizes of such knives depended on the wishes of the customer. However, such a knife could be used very successfully for hunting, and, if necessary, as a bladed weapon. Stops (crosshairs) are not found on Old Russian knives. By the way, Finnish women don’t have them either, but this circumstance did not prevent the Finns from successfully using their small knives as military weapons. The line of inclination of the butt on the blade of these knives could be different and this also speaks in favor of the fact that these knives were universal. And further. A decorated table knife, it seems to me, does not fit well with the way of life in ancient Rus'. Most likely, such a knife was a hunting knife.

Photo 5

Photo 6

Photo 7

The third type according to the classification of B.A. Kolchina are working “carpenter’s” knives. They are characterized by a downward curved blade, reminiscent of a scimitar (Photo 5). Kolchin writes that they resemble modern garden knives, but such a parallel seems far-fetched to me (Photo 6). Garden knives are still intended mainly for cutting tree shoots with a cross cut, and not for planing along the grain of wood. And the task of the “carpenter’s” knife was to plan, because for cutting there was a wood saw, widely represented in archaeological finds. It is quite possible that this is just another type of utility knife of a shape that is characterized by a straight blade and a downward curved spine. And the pronounced “sickle shape” of the cutting edge is explained in this case simply by the quality of the blade. I showed a scimitar-shaped knife to woodworkers. They believe that planing wood is extremely inconvenient for them. For planing, the so-called “jamb” is much more suitable - a knife in which the blade is directed at forty-five degrees to the handle and has a one-sided sharpening (Photo 7). (To personally verify the functional suitability of knives with a straight blade and a scimitar-shaped one, I made several different samples. Planing wood with a downward curved blade turned out to be really extremely inconvenient. On the other hand, “peeling” potatoes with a knife with a straight blade turned out to be very easy (Photo 8). Of course. in those days there were no potatoes in Russia, but turnips, for example, were a favorite addition to porridge - the main food of the Slavs. Probably vegetables in those days were “peeled" in the same way as now. Therefore, I believe that the primary feature of purely kitchen knives is a straight blade and, as a consequence of this, the line of the butt, lowered to the tip. The design of the blade with the butt going down creates the illusion of a sickle shape, which, in my opinion, misled B.A. Kolchin in his classification. An indirect confirmation can be the shape of the blade of a Japanese kitchen knife (Photo 9).The line of its blade tends to straighten and with a certain number of re-sharpenings it will take on a crescent shape.

Photo 8

Photo 9

The fourth type in this classification are working “bone-cutting” knives. Kolchin mentions them, but unfortunately does not provide drawings in his works. To be honest, I find it difficult to imagine which specific samples from the found archaeological material the scientist attributed to this group.

Photo 10

Photo 11

The next, fifth type, are working “shoe” knives. They had a massive, wide and short blade with a smoothly rounded end (Photo 10). In this case, there is no need to argue about the appointment. These knives were found in shoemakers' workshops.

There is also a group of knives for working with leather. They differ from the above-mentioned “shoe” knives in the shape of their pointed tip. These are so-called “grind-cutting” knives. They were intended for cutting leather products. These knives were made of all metal and there was a thumb rest at the end of the handle (Photo 11). (This stop was in the form of a riveted “penny”, bent towards the blade at a right angle to the handle). By pressing the knife vertically, from top to bottom, it was possible to cut any shape from a piece of leather lying on a board.

Photo 12

The sixth type is, according to B.A. Kolchin, “surgical” knives. This conclusion was made by the scientist based on the fact that one of the knives found was made entirely of metal, that is, the metal handle was forged along with the blade. (But unlike a shoemaker’s all-metal “grinding” knife, “surgical” ones are larger and do not have an emphasis on the handle). Very similar to a scalpel. According to Kolchin, this knife was intended for amputations (Photo 12).

The seventh type is “small working” knives. They were used as special tools for various craft works. The length of their blade was 30-40 mm. But these could probably have been children's knives or just small incisors.

The eighth type is something that cannot be confused with anything, “combat knives”. This is evidenced by both the shape of the blade and the fact that they are a frequent find in the burial mounds of warriors. These knives have a long blade with a massive spine. The handle, as a rule, is also massive, with an elongated handle. The 20-40 mm end of the combat knife blade had a double-edged sharpening, which made it easier to deliver piercing blows. Combat knives They were often worn behind the top of a boot, which is why they were called “shoemakers.” In “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” (XII century) it is the “shoemakers” who are a symbol of the valor of the Slavs.

Photo 13

“These are the devil of shields, and shoemakers
With a click the pluckers win,
Ring to your great-grandfather’s glory.”

“Those (Slavs) without shields, with boot knives, conquer the regiments with a click, ringing in their great-grandfather’s glory” (translation by D.S. Likhachev).

Photo 14

A special group consists of knives that Kolchin calls “folding”. This is probably not a completely correct definition. Their blades were not removed, they were replaced one with another “with a slight movement of the hand,” because this part of the knife was double-sided. This double-sided blade had a hole in the middle through which a transverse pin was passed, onto which a bone handle - a case - was attached. There was a longitudinal cut in the handle itself, where one of the blades was hidden (Photo 14).

On both sides of the hole for the pin in the blade there were cutouts for fixing the knife in one of the working positions. This cutout included a second transverse pin fixed in the handle, thus preventing further rotation of the double-sided blade. The blade rotated 180 degrees relative to the handle and one of two working blades appeared outside, depending on the owner’s wishes. One half of the double-sided blade had a straight spine with a rounded rise of the blade to the tip, which was probably necessary for working with leather or, possibly, for skinning and fleshing. The second part of the double-sided blade had a downward butt and a less rounded blade. It was probably more convenient to cut something with this blade. And the tip on this side is sharper - it’s more convenient to pierce. Here is an ancient Russian knife from a “Swiss officer”!

This is how Kolchin classified ancient Russian knives. He did not note regional differences in the shape of the knives, and this was probably done in order to emphasize the cultural homogeneity of Ancient Rus', as required by the ideology of the USSR in those years. However, I suspect that there were no sharp differences not only in the territory of Ancient Rus', but also everywhere in Europe, where only people used knives

Photo 15

But with regard to differences in time, Kolchin made some interesting observations, although they relate exclusively to Novgorod finds. It turns out that the earliest type of Novgorod knife (X-XI centuries) has a narrow blade and not very long (Photo 15). The blade width did not exceed 14 mm. The knives had a pronounced wedge-shaped cross-section due to a rather thick spine. The ratio of the width of the blade to the thickness of the butt was 3:1. The shape of the butt of these knives was straight, or at the end of the blade it was slightly rounded down. The blade length of most knives did not exceed 70-80 mm. Sometimes there were small knives with a blade about 40 mm long, or, conversely, large ones, with a blade reaching up to 120 mm. This form of knife, according to Kolchin, is characteristic and unique for the 10th-11th and early 12th centuries. At the beginning of the 12th century, sharp metamorphoses began to occur with the Novgorod knife. It becomes much wider and much thinner, and this despite the fact that the length of the blade has increased compared to the previous period of time. The blade width of these knives is now 18-20 mm. The spine of the knife is usually straight. In the 13th century, the blade of a Novgorod knife became even thinner, wider and longer.

According to B A Kolchin, the evolution of the Old Russian knife (using the example of Novgod finds) occurred in this direction. From ancient knives with a small narrow blade, but a very massive spine, to larger and wider blades with a decreasing width of the spine. And although such a time dependence is built into a coherent system, I still dare to challenge the meter’s conclusions on this matter. But I will try to do this a little later, when we get acquainted with ancient Russian blacksmithing technologies. Then I, as a blacksmith, will have the right to do this.

Unlike Novgorod, southern Rus' did not demonstrate such a pronounced evolution of the shape of the blade. The knives here looked more or less the same for many centuries. Perhaps the oldest samples are a little shorter, but this hardly fits into any system. Perhaps this is simply due to saving metal. Knives of the ancient Dnieper region are close to modern understanding of what a utility knife should be.

Regarding the method of attaching the handle, it should be noted that, as a rule, it was mounted on a shank drawn onto a wedge, as in a regular file. The handle is most often of a simple shape, oval in cross-section. The hole for the shank was burned with a pointed piece of iron heated to red. No drills for you, everything is right there at the forge, near the forge. If you cut serrations (“ruff”) on the shank with a chisel, you get a very reliable attachment. It is comparable in strength to that where epoxy resin is used. In addition, burnt wood resists moisture well. This assembly method was used in almost all ancient Russian knives, regardless of the time or place of manufacture. Occasionally, a handle assembly was used, in which wooden or bone plates (cheeks) were riveted to the flat shank. I have not seen any mention of mounting the handle on the shank, when it has passed its entire length and is riveted at the end on a metal washer.

Technologies

It’s amazing how much becomes clear when you stop speculating, and just go to the forge and start forging a knife with your own hands. In scientific language, this approach is called “experimental archaeology.” But there may be danger here, since a modern forge with an air hammer and a forge running on coal or gas are completely unsuitable. Recreating ancient blade manufacturing technologies using modern tools and materials is the same as going to a traditional martial arts gym with a Kalashnikov assault rifle. These are completely different things, incompatible with each other. That is why, at one time, I consciously abandoned the “benefits” of civilization and began to work in the same conditions as the blacksmiths of antiquity. I will not hide that this approach requires effort and time, which is not easy to afford in our fast-paced era. But the reward was invaluable practical experience, which I am happy to contribute to the general treasury of knowledge. I hope that it will serve well everyone who is ready to jointly contribute to the preservation of historical heritage.

Simple technologies

Figure 16

Before you begin presenting the material, you should familiarize yourself with the basic concepts. All knives can be divided into “welded” and “solid forged”. Moving from simple to complex, let's start with “solid forged” knives. What's the simplest thing? The simplest thing is to take a piece of iron obtained in an ancient Russian domnitsa and, giving it a certain shape with a hammer, forge a knife. This is how it was done before. No heat treatment will do anything in this case. Maybe do cold peening to seal the metal (like riveting a braid). Such knives were “soft”, quickly ground down, but still somehow cut, and therefore there were a huge number of them.

The old Russian domnitsa was a pit with a nozzle at the bottom through which air was supplied. In other words, it was a very deep forge. The pit could be raised above the surface by erecting walls, and then a shaft was obtained. Charcoal and bog iron ore were loaded into this “pit” in layers (Fig. 16). Ore is a compound of iron and oxygen. Charcoal is almost 100% carbon. When coal burns, the carbon reacts chemically with the ore. In this case, oxygen combines with carbon, forming gaseous carbon monoxide, and is removed from the iron (this is the so-called reduction process, known from a school chemistry course). A very important point: the iron did not melt (!), since everything happened at a temperature of about 1000 degrees, and the melting point of iron is 1539 degrees. At the same time, only waste rock melted, which formed slag, accumulating at the bottom of the mine. The iron itself had a porous, shapeless appearance and was therefore called spongy. After restoration in the blast furnace, it was necessary to forge it many times in order to “squeeze out” the slag, which at first runs like “juice from a squeezed lemon,” only the juice is white-hot. Dangerous but beautiful work. By the way, in ancient times this slag was called “juice”. They said: “The iron has released juice.”

The next step in increasing the complexity of the technology and improving the quality of products is forging a knife from a piece of steel. Under certain conditions, in the ancient Russian domnitsa it was possible to obtain not only “high-grade” iron, but also material with a certain, very small carbon content (about 0.5%). This is the so-called raw steel. The material, of course, is very mediocre, but still, if you heat it up and put it in water, it becomes somewhat harder. This happened due to the fact that the temperature in the blast furnace increased and the proportion of coal to ore increased slightly. The excess carbon did not combine with the oxygen of the ore, but passed into reduced iron. The result was low-grade steel.

Nowadays, that’s basically what they do: they take steel and forge a knife out of it. Only high quality and hard steel is used. Previously, this was practically not done, except for small knives or cutters, which were pointless to weld due to their small size. There was, as I already mentioned, very little steel and it was saved.

In the modern blast furnace it goes even further and the reduced iron is carbonized to such an extent that it becomes cast iron. Its melting point is much lower than iron, so it is released from the blast furnace in liquid form. After this, the excess carbon is “burned out” with the help of oxygen (the so-called open-hearth or Bessemer processes) and, thus, a material is obtained with required quantity carbon. As you can see, everything is the other way around!

And if there is no steel, there is only strong iron and you need to make a hard knife? Is there really no way out? It turns out there is!

Probably, even in ancient times, blacksmiths noticed that if a soft iron object, heated red-hot, is left in smoldering charcoal for some time and then lowered into water, it becomes hard. Why is this happening?

Figure 17. Cemented blade

If you asked an ancient blacksmith about this, he would probably talk about the magic and magic that happens in the forge (I also adhere to this view). But scientists explained everything to us and destroyed the fairy tale. All this happens because carbon from coal passes into the surface layer of iron. Thus, steel is obtained. This process is called cementation. This is the most ancient and simplest method of making steel objects. It is very difficult to control the process with this technology, since the temperature in the forge can fluctuate and even fall below the level when the transition of carbon to iron occurs. And if you start to strongly inflate the bellows, the reverse process will begin - excess oxygen will begin to “burn out” carbon from the metal. In general, it’s like this: “It’s difficult, but it’s possible.” And at the same time without any special technical wisdom (Fig. 17).

A further improvement to this “magical” process is that the item being turned into steel is separated from the volatile environment of the forge by being enclosed in a container, such as a pot filled with coal. Or you can wrap it in leather and coat it with clay. When heated, the skin will turn into coal, that is, into carbon. Now blow as much as you want, but no air will get inside the container, and you can “catch up” a fair amount of temperature. And when high temperature and the process will go faster, and the carbon concentration may increase!

Welding technologies

Next, let's move on to “welded” knives. Welded blades consist of several pieces of iron and steel that are forge welded into one piece. What is forge welding? This is when the metal is heated, as my teacher put it, “until a pig squeals” (that is, white-hot), so that it seems like it is about to burn. If you put two pieces heated in this way together and hit them with a hammer, they will join into one whole, so that the seam will not be visible if you then forge it well. Miracles, and that’s all! There were two pieces, now there is one. Welding technologies can use materials with different properties, such as steel and iron. The main goals that were pursued were the following:

1. Savings. In my opinion, this is the most important reason why this technology was used. Steel was previously made from iron by cementation. It was a lengthy process that required certain labor and materials, and steel was much more expensive than iron. Therefore, knives were assembled from several pieces of varying quality.

2. To increase the strength of the blade. Good steel, although hard, is brittle at the same time. This was especially evident in ancient times, when the resulting metal was dirty (it always contained slag, which deteriorated the quality of steel) and did not contain various alloying additives. But iron is the opposite: bend it in any direction and you won’t break it. If you made a knife from just one metal, it turned out badly. The solution was to combine metals with different properties together.

3. For beauty. This, of course, is Damascus, now beloved by everyone. There is a special conversation about Damascus steel, but I will limit myself to just stating the fact that the main purpose of Damascus is decorative and only secondarily - for the strength of the blade, but certainly not for hardness.

The welding technologies used in the manufacture of ancient Russian knives (by the way, exactly the same technologies were used all over the world, so you won’t hear anything new here) can be divided into the following groups:

Figure18

1.Steel core and iron side plates. This is the so-called three-layer technology or, as they say now, laminated steel (Fig. 18). Some dreamers attribute self-sharpening properties to such blades, but, unfortunately, this is not the case. Lamination technology has survived well to this day and is used all the time: from mass-produced Scandinavian knives to safety razor blades (Photo 19).

Photo 20

2. A variation of the previous one - “five-layer” technology, which, according to B.A. The keel should give the knives additional bending strength. But, in my opinion, the reason here is most likely again in saving metal. Steel of significantly worse quality was used for the outer linings. And perhaps this is the most primitive example of decorating a blade using welding technology. The blade of such a knife has a beautiful wavy white stripe running along the blade, where the iron layer came to the surface (Photo 20).

3. And now everything is the other way around - “girth” welding: the outside is steel, and the inside is iron (Fig. 21). A Japanese technique typical of katana swords. It was rarely used in ancient Russian knives, but it was still used, although it is not clear why. Completely uneconomical in terms of steel use. It gives good impact strength, but who would thresh with a knife as much as with a sword? (Perhaps only in combat?..).

If in the technologies described above steel was present in all parts of the cross-section of the blade, then in the following groups it is located only on the cutting edge. This is economical and, as practice shows, provides certain advantages in terms of strength. The only drawback is that when the steel is ground down, the knife loses its properties. In the cases described above (with the exception of “girth” welding), the knife can be used until it is completely ground off - there will always be steel left on the blade.

Figure 22

Photo 23

4. End welding. The steel strip is welded at the end to the iron base (Fig. 22). The main disadvantage is the small area of ​​connection between the two various materials. But, as a rule, with a certain skill, the weld is quite reliable. Similar to the three-layer laminated technology, end welding is still used today. An example of this is, in particular, high-quality blades for metal hacksaws manufactured by the Swedish company Sandvik. A strip of high-speed steel on which teeth are cut is welded to the base of the spring steel sheet using electron beam welding (Photo 23). The result is a very flexible blade with a strong and sharp tooth, offering good performance and a long service life.

Figure 24

Figure 25

5. Lateral (“oblique”) welding. With this manufacturing method, the seam area increases slightly, which makes it possible to reduce the number of “lack of fusion” and is guaranteed to improve the strength of the connection between the steel blade and the iron base (Fig. 24).

In fact, it is difficult to draw a clear line between the two technologies mentioned above. If you begin to pull back the blade of a strip welded to the end, striking only on one side of the blade, then the result will be almost a side weld. So, in its pure form, side welding can be considered as such when the angle between the butt and the weld seam approaches a straight line (in cross section). This can be achieved when, as a blank for the package, strips with a wedge-shaped section drawn at the edges are taken and folded into a “jack”. The result will be a knife that is almost iron on one side and steel on the other (Fig. 25).

Photo 26

Photo 27

6. Welding “spindles”. The connection area increases even more, but the labor intensity of the work also increases. Just don’t think that someone cut the metal lengthwise with a chisel and put steel there. In fact, this is a type of three-layer (“batch”) technology, just more economical in terms of the amount of steel used. For such welding, they took two iron strips, drawn onto a wedge on one side, and inserted a steel strip of a wedge-shaped cross-section, with the drawn side inward. Then this package was forged and thus a blade blank was obtained (Photo 26)

There was another version of this technology. A strip of iron was bent lengthwise, like a gutter. A strip of steel was then placed in this channel and welded together (Photo 27).

7. Welding “to the girth at the end”. This is a variation of the technology mentioned above and, again, the desire of blacksmiths to save steel (Fig. 28).

Figure 28

In addition, there were combined technologies. In this case, a three-layer (or five-layer) technology was used, but the central steel liner had only a lower part, which was welded at the end or obliquely.

8. The production of Damascus steel is difficult to identify as a separate technology. This is a combination of the technologies already mentioned above. The main purpose of Damascus, as I already mentioned, is as a decorative decoration that increases the value of the blade. He did not perform other functions, since from a technical point of view, the totality of the same qualities can be achieved much more in simple ways. In terms of complexity, there are no particular difficulties in making Damascus. Anyone who was familiar with forge welding (and in ancient times every experienced blacksmith had such knowledge) could make Damascus steel. And he did it when a richer customer came across, since to make it it was necessary to burn twice as much coal, spend more time, and more metal was wasted. That's all. I believe that this is precisely what explains the small number of knives made of welding Damascus found on the territory of Ancient Rus'. It was simply unprofitable to do them. And even about the few samples that have been found, there are doubts. Perhaps they are not locally produced, since spectral analysis shows that the metal contains nickel, which was not present in local ores. Similar to the case of an expensive foreign item purchased to show off. A large number of The number of finds made from welded Damascus in the places where they are found is determined, in my opinion, by one thing - the existence of a fashion for Damascus (which we observe even today: Damascus has again become fashionable and therefore the market is saturated with it to the limit).

Photo 30. Damascus knife from Novgorod

To understand what an ancient knife made of welding Damascus was, you should understand the main thing: Damascus was used only for the insert in the middle part of the blade, as a rule, when using end welding (Photo 29, 30). Very rarely - on facings using the “three-layer” technology, mainly in the manufacture of swords. As we can see, in ancient times the use of Damascus was limited, unlike today, when the entire blade is most often made from Damascus and then they try to convince you that it is a “super thing”. In ancient times, it never occurred to anyone to engage in such hack work. The same can be said about the “millions of layers” with which they try to seduce the unlucky buyer. Ten layers give a wonderfully beautiful contrasting pattern and sometimes that’s all that’s required (Photo 31). To be fair, I note that now there is a tendency to assemble Damascus from high-carbon and alloy steels. Such a blade will have an acceptable cutting edge, but you must agree that in this case we are going far beyond the scope of ancient technologies. In ancient times, Damascus blades had ordinary steel on the blade, which did not have a pattern. Although, however, the process of making iron, and, consequently, steel, necessarily included “packing”, in which slag was squeezed out of “flashy” porous iron with a hammer and the material was compacted and cleaned. So any piece of ancient iron is essentially Damascus. And if you etch it, then a “wild” pattern, as it is romantically called now, will appear on the surface. The Japanese have elevated this pattern to a cult on their katanas and achieve its manifestation on the blade by polishing. But the decorative purpose in this case is secondary; the pattern is, first of all, proof of compliance with traditional sword manufacturing technology.

That, in principle, was all that was available to blacksmiths, regardless of where they lived - in Rus' or in Africa.

Return to history

B.A. Kolchin established that early Novgorod knives (narrow and with a massive spine - see “Blade” No. 1, 2005) were made according to a “three-layer” pattern. Its widespread use in Ancient Novgorod is another proof of the continuation of the Finno-Ugric blacksmith tradition, which is characterized by this particular technology. It was used not only in knives, but also in other welded products with a steel cutting edge, such as spears, which has been proven by relevant archaeological research.

Photo 32

Another interesting point. According to Kolchin, the wedge-shaped cross-section of the blade was given not by forging, but by grinding off excess material from the side surfaces of the blade. This can be seen from the microstructure. If the knife were pulled back, the middle steel part would also have a wedge shape (Photo 32)

Based on the fact that with such a blade design the knife can be used until it is completely ground off, Boris Aleksandrovich Kolchin decided that this is the most progressive technology. The further evolution of the ancient Russian knife, in his opinion, followed the path of simplification. First, combined welding, when the central liner had a narrow steel blade to a shallow depth. And then a complete transition to end cutting and other technologies. Moreover, the steel part was constantly decreasing in size and by the 14th-15th centuries. turned into a completely narrow strip. We saved, saved and saved more! In addition, he sees three-layer technology as more durable. Allegedly, it is this design of the blade that guarantees the knife’s resistance to fracture!

Photo 33

From the very beginning, I was intrigued by the description of an ancient Novgorod knife with its thick spine and narrow blade (let me remind you - the ratio is 1:3, that is, with a blade width of 18 mm, the spine at the base of the blade is 6 mm (Photo 33). Having made a knife according to these descriptions, I tried to use it. The result was very disastrous. You can, of course, cut something, but it is so difficult that it is unclear why the Novgorodians created so many problems for themselves. In short, I doubted Kolchin’s statement that “this is the only form" of the blade for of that time. And a sinful thought crept into my mind. Indeed, a three-layer knife can be used almost until it is completely ground down. But what if the finds are precisely knives that have been sharpened to the utmost, which were thrown away (and this is precisely the fate of many archaeological finds) when they are completely it was impossible to use them due to the extremely narrow blade.This also explains the strange technology of turning a blade from a whole strip with abrasives, when the cross-section results in a “convex wedge”, rather than pulling the blade back using the forging method. Sharpening a blade at that time would have been, firstly, an incredibly long task (with the means available at that time - a wet sandstone sharpener and a file with a rough manual notch). But most importantly, this is not economical and fundamentally contradicts the ancient approach to such work. After all, the deeper you go into antiquity, the more expensive iron is. In my opinion, they were simply “ground” to this state during operation.

Photo 34

Remember, in the previous issue of “Blade”, I said that an ancient knife sharpens the entire plane of the blade? And while sharpening his knife, time after time, the owner, pressing the cutting edge more firmly, involuntarily gave the cross-section of the blade more and more convex shapes, thereby increasing the sharpening angle. And having thus brought the blade of his knife to a state where it was already problematic to cut anything, he simply threw the knife away. And this despite the fact that its core was steel, and theoretically it could be brought to working condition. And for this it was necessary to slightly correct the edges of the wedge and make the butt thinner. But they didn’t do this, therefore, it was not advisable! What can we say about completely grinding a new knife?!

Kolchin himself accepted this final result as the “starting point” of the new knife. Although he himself notes that the shape of one knife is not stable and changes by sharpening during use (Photo 34). And he himself refuted the classification attempts put forward before him, proving that this is just one “universal” form of a knife, changing during its operation.

Meanwhile, knives with a welded steel cutting edge can have a wide blade only because they were thrown away much earlier, when the welded blade was ground off. In this case, to what extent does three-layer technology seem more progressive? But didn’t the ancient blacksmiths, in their economy, go so far as to weld steel onto the blade only to the level where the cross-section of the blade allowed the knife to be used normally?!

Regarding the strength of the blade, I also have certain considerations. The crack extends across the blade, doesn’t it? And she walks on steel. Therefore, there are no obstacles to its movement with a “three-layer” scheme. All that holds it is fairly thick iron plates. Meanwhile, with end welding, an obstacle appears directly in the path of the crack. Based on my practical experience, I can say that three-layer knives break more often and immediately in half. Those welded to the end may become “pockmarked”, they may have cracks on the blade, but the iron still prevents the blade from breaking.

Three-layer knives have another very unpleasant feature, which I have repeatedly noted in the process of making them. They are strongly “driven” during hardening. Warping, of course, can be eliminated by cold straightening, after hardening, but I must say, again based on my practice, this is a rather risky operation, especially if the hardness of the steel insert exceeds 57 units on the Rockwell C scale. One wrong blow and a whole day of work down the drain - the blade shatters in half. Butt-welded knives “lead”, firstly, much less, and secondly, you can knock on them much more boldly after hardening. Isn't this the answer to the question why the vast majority of ancient European swords used end welding technology, rather than a three-layer package? After all, for a sword, more than anything else, impact strength is important, even at the expense of hardness. A dull sword is better than a broken one.

Based on the above, you can do next output: There was no decrease in the quality level of blacksmithing production in Ancient Rus'. On the contrary, its evolution took place on the basis of accumulated practical experience, during which production methods that were inappropriate, both for economic and technological reasons, were discarded. Here I see a direct analogy with the “secret of damask steel”, which was not so much lost as it turned out to be unclaimed due to the emergence of such a material as alloy steel (steel where, in addition to carbon, other elements are present in more or less significant quantities, for example chromium, molybdenum , vanadium, etc.). This made it possible to bring steel closer in technical characteristics to cast damask steel at much lower production costs. The main factor is the possibility of establishing large-scale production, which was especially important during the industrial revolution. As we see, in our post-industrial era, interest in damask steel arose again and its secret was “rediscovered”!

But let's not dwell on this controversial issue. Let's go further. Let's now see how knives were made in Southern Rus', that is, in the vicinity of Kyiv and downstream of the Dnieper. Previously, it was believed that the same technologies were used here as in Novgorod. But thanks to the research of Ukrainian scientists, which I already mentioned at the beginning of the article, it turned out that knives were made differently here. It turns out that it was the “solid forged” technologies that prevailed. According to Ukrainian scientists, products made of iron and “raw” steel accounted for more than half of the total number of finds. A significant proportion of them are knives that are “carburized” in finished form. Welding technologies were used much less frequently. There are no more than a quarter of the found samples of knives made using these technologies.

What is the reason for such a pronounced difference between Novgorod and Kiev? At first glance, it is not clear what prevented the artisans of Southern Rus' from welding the blade with steel, which significantly improves its working properties. But this is only if there is ready-made steel! In the north, thanks to a good raw material base, iron and steel production was established as a separate industry, which was carried out by professionals. In addition, ready-made high-quality steel from Scandinavia arrived in Novgorod. Thanks to these circumstances, the northern cutler did not have to rack his brains about where to get quality materials - he simply bought ready-made ones. Unlike the north, in the southern Russian lands the problem of raw materials was much more acute. The community blacksmith, and it was precisely this form of blacksmithing that gravitated towards in the Kyiv lands, provided himself with raw materials. Therefore, the technologies used here were archaic and extremely simple. At the beginning of the article, a lot was said about the differences between the North and South of Rus' in terms of the availability of natural resources necessary for blacksmithing. Let me remind you once again of this very important conclusion, made due to the fact that I am not only a blacksmith, but also studying ecology at the university. In the North there is a lot of forest (read firewood for burning charcoal) and swamp ore. But due to the cold climate, growing grain crops (food) is much more difficult than in the South. In the South, in the forest-steppe zone, the situation is exactly the opposite. The further into antiquity, the more a person depends on natural conditions. Therefore, first of all, those types of activities for which there were the most favorable natural conditions developed.

When a South Russian (Kyiv) artisan needed to improve the mechanical properties of a knife, the blade was cemented in its finished form. After all, steel was prepared by the same carburization process. What's the point of doing double work: first cementing the piece of iron for a long time, spending a lot of time on it, and then welding it to the product, spending a lot of coal on it. And the carbon that burns out at the same time deteriorates the quality of the steel. In such a situation, it is much more logical to cement the finished product.

Photo 35. Old Russian pottery kiln

According to B.A. Kolchina, this method (cementation), was very unproductive in comparison with welding technologies due to the labor intensity and duration of the process. For example, in order to create a more or less acceptable carburized layer on a knife, a minimum of 5 hours is required. But cementation makes it possible to process several products at the same time. And you don’t need to put in much effort. He put five knives in a pot of crushed coal, covered it with clay and put it on the fire. Just know, throw some firewood! And if you make an agreement with a local potter, you can put several of these pots in his oven during firing! In this case, we can already talk about serial production products in terms of time, effort and fuel expended (Fig. 35).

Living mainly in an ordinary Ukrainian hut, heated by a wood stove, I came to the following cementation method. I put a metal case filled with charcoal on the finished iron product, and then simply put it in the furnace firebox, along with the firewood. As it turned out, a temperature of 900 degrees is achieved easily and simply, the main thing is that the firewood is dry (Photo 36). And if you heat it with oak wood and chop it into smaller pieces, the workpiece generally heats up almost white-hot. So, along with heating my modest home and cooking food, I simultaneously work on the blacksmith’s part, without particularly straining and staying warm and full. A very Ukrainian approach, I must tell you! If a small layer is needed, morning and evening heating is sufficient. If it’s deeper, then I leave it for two to three days).

Photo 36. Blanks heated in an oven until red hot

I am sure that the blacksmiths of antiquity could not ignore this method. I remember I even read somewhere about an old man who, at the beginning of the last century, melted damask steel in an ordinary Russian stove in a pot, and then the secret went with him to the grave. It is hardly possible to reach the temperatures necessary for melting the charge and preparing cast damask steel in a Russian furnace. But cementation followed by long exposure to form a coarse cementite mesh, in my opinion, is quite realistic (given the corresponding design features of the Russian furnace).

Summarizing all of the above, we can draw the following conclusion: technologies are determined not by the level of development of society or the ethnic characteristics of the people, but, first of all, by local natural conditions and economic feasibility.

Bogdan Popov.

(the text is a compilation of a number of articles from scientific works and the practices of a number of modern pagans)
We are so accustomed to the knife that when we use it every day, we don’t think about what kind of object we own. It is like the air we breathe; we only notice it when it is absent. The word knife itself is known to everyone, from baby to old man, but few know how it appeared. Our ancestors used long swords, sabers, spears in battle; when it came to hand-to-hand combat, short foot swords attached to the leg were used. Over time, the word sword fell away, and knife was shortened to a short word - knife. We still use this word to designate this ancient object. Where there is history, there are traditions and rituals. And there are many rituals associated with the knife, and this is logical. There are more than thirty names for the knife itself!
Berestyannik, dezhnik, karnachik, kvashennik, dagger, treasure trove, rivet, gag, logs, hammer, mower, pigtail, kosnik, mower, bone cutter, jamb, kotach, kshennik, shovel, misar, musat, woman’s knife, penny knife, man's knife, chef's knife, carving knife, nosik, secretok, cutter, chapel, chapel - 31 and that's not all.
The use of a knife at the dinner table required compliance with certain rules. A knife for cutting bread at dinner, in the family circle, was given only to the owner, when everyone was already at the table; the owner took a loaf of bread and drew a cross over it with a knife, and only after that he cut it and distributed it to family members.
The knife should be with the blade facing the bread. It was not allowed to eat from a knife, so as not to become evil (here the connection with murder and bloodshed is expressed - directors widely use this technique in films).
You couldn’t leave the knife on the table overnight—the evil one could have killed you. Not
If you gave someone a knife with its point, there would be a quarrel with that person. There is another explanation, but that will come later.
The knife served as a talisman against evil spirits, so they didn’t give it to a stranger, especially if they knew that the person was bad, because the knife can become “infected” with its dirty tricks
The knife was widely used in rituals, during love spells, in folk medicine etc. In maternity rituals, a knife was placed under the pillow of the woman in labor, along with fragrant herbs and three woven wax candles, to protect against evil spirits.
When the baby appeared, the father forged a knife himself, or ordered it from a blacksmith, and this knife accompanied the boy, youth, man all his life.
When a child was brought into the house, after the naming ceremony, a knife, along with coal, an ax and keys, was placed on the threshold of the house, over which the parents and the child had to step (step), and often the child himself was applied to objects lying on the threshold.
The knife, along with other sharp and hard objects: scissors, keys, arrows, pebbles, animal teeth, was placed in the child’s cradle immediately after his birth, which was supposed to make up for the “insufficient hardness of the child” and was not removed until his first teeth appeared.
If a child did not begin to walk for a long time, a “tow” was tied to his head. Without a spindle, the mother spun a long and thick thread and made “fetters” out of it, which she used to entangle her legs. standing child, took a knife and cut the “fetter” between the feet on the floor. The ritual was called “cutting the bonds” and was supposed to help the child quickly learn to walk.
When cutting a child's hair for the first time, he was seated on a table, usually on a casing, under which a spindle or comb was placed for a girl, an ax or knife for a boy.
In men's associations, parties, and artels, everyone was required to carry a knife or dagger, made specifically for combat use and not used anywhere else.
The use and carrying of a knife was strictly regulated.
There are three known wearing methods:
1- on the belt,
2- in the boot top,
3- in the pocket on the chest.
We are interested in the position “on the belt”, because it is considered more ancient.
During the ritual, the knife was often shown hanging on the belt, while on weekdays it was carried secretly. Hanging knife; (dagger) on the belt was very functional in wartime.
Everywhere in the Tver region they emphasize the connection of the combat knife with the concept of manhood, honor, and courage. The ban on carrying a knife was perceived as an insult to male dignity.
Everywhere among the Slavs, a knife and scissors were used to protect persons in a situation of “transition”: pregnant women, women in labor, newborns, and especially unbaptized children and newlyweds. A pregnant woman carried a folding knife in her pocket to protect herself from the evil eye. Along with other sharp objects and thorny plants, the knife was placed next to the woman in labor (stuck into the door frame, placed under the pillow, under the bed) to protect her from damage and evil spirits. When leaving home in the six-week period after giving birth, the woman in labor had to take a knife with her, usually tucking it into her belt, hiding it in her pocket or in her bosom, so that she could not be spoiled and so that she could not harm anyone with her ritual impurity. A knife, along with a needle, salt, coal, a piece of bread, a piece of brick from the stove and other amulets were placed under a child’s pillow or cradle, stuck into the cradle from below to protect him from the evil eye, to prevent evil spirits from reaching him that could exchange him on his cub. When the newlyweds left the house, heading to the church, a knife was stuck in the ground in front of them, and all the wedding participants stepped over it. When building a house, the knife was placed under the front corner with the tip pointing to the west, so that no one could harm the house and household, so that it would “prick itself” on the knife. Before putting on a new shirt, a knife was passed through it to neutralize the damage. When they were poking, winding or weaving, a knife was tucked into the belt to protect the work from the evil eye.
The knife was widely used to protect against evil spirits and fight against them. A knife, like other iron objects, was used to draw a magic circle to protect oneself from evil spirits during Christmas fortune-telling at a crossroads or when obtaining a fern flower on Kupala night; a person who is oppressed by pestilence must circle the house with a knife three times (Bosnian Herzegovinian). A knife, scythe, ax, sickle was placed on the threshold, on the window, stuck in the doorposts and gates so that evil spirits could not enter the house: sometimes it was believed that the sorcerer could not enter the house at all, because there, along with the icon and cross, there is a knife. The knife was placed in bed at night to protect oneself from the zmora (Serbian, Croatian, Dalmatian), striga (Horvian), vampire (Serbian), brownie (v-bel), walking dead man (s-rus). The knife was placed in the coffin of an “unclean” dead person: a sorcerer (poles) or a vampire (yu-slav), so that they would stab him if they wanted to rise from the grave after death. To save the deceased from the fate of a vampire, a large knife was stuck in front of his head while he was lying in the house (Bosnia).
In cattle-breeding magic, the knife was used as a talisman for livestock against damage, disease, predatory animals, witches and sorcerers. During the first herding of cattle, a knife, as well as scissors, a sickle, a scythe, an ax and other iron amulets were placed under the threshold of the barn, placed in the gate at the entrance to the pen, making sure that the cattle stepped over them, and also stuck into the ground or above the doors , through which the cattle passed, they dragged them with them when walking around the herd, and waved them crosswise over the cattle. In "dangerous" calendar dates, for example, on Kupala, along with other sharp objects and thorny plants, a knife was stuck into the wall, roof, doorways of the barn, placed under the threshold, believing that in this case the witch would not be able to penetrate the barn and take away the milk (forest).
When using a knife for protective purposes, actions such as sticking a knife and crossing with a knife had special semantics. In addition to the fact that sticking was one of the ways to place a knife in a protected space (by sticking it into a cradle, wall, door frame, belt, etc.), in a number of cases it could acquire stopping semantics. To prevent thunder from hitting the tree under which the person is standing, a knife is stuck into the tree (forest). If you “dreamed” about a dead person, to stop it, they stuck a knife inside the bowl (poles.).
Sticking a knife, on the one hand, blocked the path of danger, and on the other, symbolically “fenced” the carrier of danger to one place. It was believed that the whirlwind could be stopped by sticking a knife into the ground - in this case, the whirlwind would spin in one place until you remove the knife (woodland). When a hail cloud approached, they stuck a knife into the ground to turn the hail away from the crops (Serb.). To prevent fleas in the house, during thunder they stuck a knife into the ground and said: “Thunder, thunder, for fleas” (Ukrainian). When the bride was sent to the young man's house, a knife was stuck into the ground in the courtyard of her house to protect her from damage (woodland). A charm knife stuck into the ground protected a person or cattle from the attack of wolves (V.-Bel.); on St.'s day Yuri, during the first pasture of cattle they stuck a knife under the threshold of the hut so that the wolf would not touch the cattle (in white). If the cow did not return home for the night, the healer would “spot” the lost cattle by sticking a charmed knife into the wall of the passage.
The knife is a symbol and a necessity. The knife has been and remains one of the most important objects that accompany a person throughout his history. Nowadays we sometimes stop noticing it, because the knife dissolves among many other things surrounding a person’s life. But in the distant past, a knife was often the only metal object that a person possessed. In Ancient Rus' (IX-XII centuries), a knife was an attribute of any free person. A knife hung on every woman's belt. A child, at a certain age, received a knife that he never parted with. Why was this subject given such importance?
The knife was not only an everyday functional item. Ancient people perceived the world through the prism of magic. Therefore, the magical functions of the knife, which our ancestors believed in, were no less important. He had many magical properties, which he shared with his owner, and they tried to never give him into the wrong hands. They swore on it. They protected themselves from witchcraft. The groom gave it to the bride upon engagement. When a person died, the knife went with him and was placed in the owner’s grave.
This is, of course, a somewhat idealized picture. In real life, they lost knives and bought new ones, lent them, gave them as gifts, and those that had served their purpose - knives ground almost to the butt - were simply thrown away. The knife was a universal and most common tool. This is confirmed by the fact that knives are often the most common finds during excavations. In Novgorod, at the Nerevsky excavation site alone, 1,440 copies of knives were found. During excavations of ancient Izyaslav, destroyed by the Tatars, 1358 knives were found.

From the extensive theoretical part above, you have the opportunity to choose dozens of methods for using a knife by a modern pagan in your life, including in ritual practice.
It remains to make a small recommendation for the ritual knife spell, which is based on the NLG of several practitioners and the processing of ancient spells.
For ritual religious practices, a knife is a frequently used tool.
In rituals associated with cutting off and restriction, a knife is used if the ritual process involves “reification of the unmanifested.”
To make many protective and ritual objects, a knife is used to apply sacred graphics.
In addition, the ritual knife is used to bring animals to the required place, if by lot it fell to be brought with a knife.
Thus, there can be three ritual personal knives. Chisel, ritual knife, knife for making sacrifices. You can combine all functions in one. It's optional.
The dedication of a knife is not much different from the dedication of any other ritual object. Several conditions must be met.
– The knife must be purchased directly for this purpose.
– When purchasing, you cannot haggle or take change.
– The knife should not be used for anything other than its intended purpose.
– A self-forged knife must be completely forged on its own - from the ore to the product, no one should touch the material. Otherwise, it’s better not to bother blacksmiths with these tips unnecessarily, and if you are not a blacksmith, prepare the finished product.
Direct sanctification.
(this is not dogma, just advice)
Do not forget about APPEALS to all those Forces to which you resort for help, and the demands of these forces!
The purchased knife should lie for a full moon running water in such a way that the moon “sees him.”
After cleansing, the knife must lie for the waxing moon on a natural altar or temple of a predetermined God. If he “leaves” the altar, it means he is unfit.
It’s not a bad idea to leave the knife hanging on a tree so that the Winds blow through it, at least for a full week.
A PART of the ritual is published that directly concerns the knife spell - in general, look for advice on the stages of the rituals in our group!
After preparing the place and all stages of the beginning of the ceremony, the central part begins:
1. additional binding to the owner. Drop blood onto the blade so that it spreads and dries on its own. Do not specifically wash or rinse off. CAUTION – DO NOT CUT YOURSELF WITH THE KNIFE, BUT DRIPP YOUR BLOOD ON IT.
Ritual Knife Spell:
In the presence of living fire, the spell is pronounced three times.

There is an iron pillar, on that pillar there is an iron man, he tempers the iron tightly - firmly, the iron is sharp, the iron is strong, what lay in the ground did not lie, what burned in the fire, did not burn out, was not wasted in running water - It was filled with strength, It was not carried by the winds - it was full of strength, strength in strength, strength came out, both in height and in depth, and will overcome everything, here and here and everywhere, be sharp as a word, be quick as lightning, where I say you will go, then you will cut it, so that there was nothing superfluous, nothing else, everything was according to my word, everything was in my will, everything was good and healthy!
(put a lock on the conspiracy in your own way - some with an action, some with a verbal formula, think about it yourself)))
After three days at night, I take a knife under my pillow during the day. Further store with ritual objects, act at your own discretion.
Also, an example of a plot for a knife, the plot has been greatly revised, and rather it is entirely creative))):
On the Okiyan sea, on the island of Buyan, there stands an iron pillar. On it is an iron man, He tempers damask steel, he speaks and pronounces these words to the iron:
I speak to all Spirits, Earthly and Heavenly, Underground and Underworld, to all Forest, Meadow, Field, Water and Swamp, Wind and Mountain, Naughty and dissolute Demons, And from evil people for all malice and wickedness, for envy and jealousy, for all decay, for a dashing look and other evil, dirty lessons, and evil witchcraft rumors, and witchcraft spells, and for all ailments, and all sorts of harm to the belly!
You will not be there during the days or at night, neither at the Dawn nor at the Evening, nor on the roads, nor at the crossroads, nor in the village, nor at the crossroads,
Not near rivers and banks, Not near mountains and valleys, Not near forests and swamps, Not in a house, not in any building! Where this iron is there, there is no lie! (The lock is at your discretion.)

In conclusion, I’ll also add a spell, in a small treatment for cleansing, using a knife. (processing is highlighted in CAPITAL LETTERS - the rest is authentic)
In the golden stone is the THRONE OF GOD.
There is a table, Mother Presveta MOKOSH sits on the throne, holding a copper dish and a knife. Then I will cut off the portions and the portions, and the lessons, the cuts - from the bones and from the ears, and from the clear eyes, from the white hands, from the playful legs, from the heel veins, from a single vein, from a single bone, from a single joint, from a girl from simple-haired, from the white-haired woman, from the peasant from Tsernek. Just as they came, go to the old master, to the old ataman! At dawn, and at dawn, and at midnight - and every day, and at every hour! SO BE IT! . (Rinse it in the water, whether it be for livestock or for a person, or for a child, or for someone else. Pour water into a vessel, take a knife in your hands, lower it into the water and speak.)

Handmade Slavic knives: Damascus steel on the official website. The best store in Russia.

According to archaeological excavations, the Slavs had knives almost from the very beginning of the formation of society. Over time, the knife changed and improved. On this moment The knives have a very attractive appearance and excellent quality. We make all our knives by hand and when you receive your product, it will look even better in your hands than in the photo. We love our work and are proud of it.

Content:

• Russian knives
• Slavs have knives
• Damascus steel
• Store (official website)
• Handmade
• Buy
• Reviews

Russian knives

The knife helped the Slavic ancestors solve many issues. Such as:

• economic
• food production (hunting, fishing)
• ritual

I would like to say more, the knife played a huge role in the Slavic tradition and is considered part of the Russian (and many other peoples) costume. The centuries-old history of our people is filled with ups and downs, but at all times Russian knives have been distinguished by their quality and aesthetics. Continuing the glorious tradition of our ancestors, our craftsmen make masterpieces that truly delight their owner.

Slavs have knives

The traditional Slavic knife is part of the culture and tradition of our ancestors. In Rus', a knife was considered a sign of a free person. Just recently back in Russian Empire the sale of weapons was permitted and did not require any special permits. The situation changed only in 1900 - 2000, when a sharp refusal began at the behest of the state. Early in 1900, knives were distributed throughout Russia in huge quantities.



Damascus steel

Creating Damascus steel takes a lot of time and effort, but it is worth it. In order to make a product from this material, a deep understanding of blacksmithing and talent is required. For many people, Damascus steel is super high-tech and represents the highest bar in knife and ax making. The most important quality is that the layers are alternated to achieve ideal parameters. All work is done by hand and the product in your hands will look much better than in the photo. In addition to the fact that the knife has the highest technical characteristics, it also enchants with its beauty and aesthetics. Our craftsmen are number 1 specialists in Russia and for almost 10 years there has not been a single bad review. The works are really very worthy and would be suitable as a gift for the most dear people your heart and of course for yourself.

Shop (official website) knives

Our website is an official store that operates thanks to the work of hundreds of people. The Slavic site is a huge platform that is engaged in the development and promotion of old Slavic crafts. We have united the best specialists into one team and are guided primarily by quality. At your service we can offer a huge selection of knives from the best blacksmiths in Russia. Good work in good hands. Glory to Rod!



Handmade knives

The most important advantage of our knives is handmade and an individual approach to each product. Truly, the knives and axes are made at a very high level. Vast experience in creating masterpieces. Absolutely all customers are satisfied with their purchases from us and come back again. We made friends with many and became good friends.

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Knives reviews

In order to see reviews, you need to find a group on the VKontakte social network called: Slavic Shop Grad. In the discussions you will find reviews and if it is convenient for you to place an order through social network, then write to Natalya Slavina. The order will be placed as soon as possible short time. An individual approach to each buyer.

1. Russian and other national knives of ancient types
A knife in the most general sense of the word, that is, simply as a plate with a pointed edge, appeared at an early stage in the development of human society and had a multi-purpose, or universal purpose. Ancient tools, wrote F. Engels, “are tools of hunting and fishing: the former are also weapons.” The earliest knives were made of stone and bone. Then these materials were replaced by metal.
The Bronze Age, Iron Age and subsequent stages of human development made it possible to create more reliable and more advanced tools, necessary for a person in everyday life, work and military affairs. However, it is very difficult to trace the specifics of these objects and to separate the tools of labor from the weapons of war of that time. It is characteristic that even archaeologists studying the history of material culture are in no hurry to divide the knives they find into tools and weapons. At the same time, it was knives, especially for a relatively late time from the point of view of archeology, i.e. for the X-XIII centuries, are one of the most common archaeological finds. During excavations in ancient Novgorod alone, about 8,000 knife blades were found.
Judging by the available finds, the knives of that time were not much different in shape from modern kitchen knives. They were made mainly of two types - a blade with a blade curving towards the tip and a straight spine, or a blade with the same blade and a spine curving towards the tip. The handles of the knives were wooden or bone, less often metal. The length of the blades is 4 - 20 cm (Fig. 1). Characteristic difference These knives were characterized by the fact that their spine was always thicker than the rest of the blade. In cross section, the blades of these knives were wedge-shaped. The angle of the blade, and therefore the sharpening of the blade, was 15-25°.

Fig.1 Old Russian knife

It is interesting to note that ancient Russian blacksmiths, when making knives, used five technological techniques:
1. Welding a blade of three strips in such a way that there is a strip of harder metal in the middle, and strips of softer metal at the edges.
2: Welding a steel blade onto a metal strip.
3. Combined welding with the production of a patterned butt.
4. Cementation of an iron knife blade.
5. Manufacturing of all-steel knives.
It is known from archaeological sources that knives found in burial mounds and burial grounds are found with male and female remains. It follows that they were a necessary accessory for men and women equally and were not divided according to their purpose into household and military. At the same time, many historical documents allow us to conclude that among the knives there were also those that were intended specifically for military purposes. One of the oldest historical documents, “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” relating to XII century, contains a direct indication of the use of a certain group of knives in combat: “... but without shields with boot knives, they conquer the regiments with a click, ringing with their great-grandfather’s glory.” There are quite a lot of similar indications about the use of knives as weapons. However, trying not to load the text of the work with numerous literary and historical digressions, we will limit ourselves here to only the following evidence. One of the oldest Russian researchers of the history of material culture, P. Savaitov, wrote: “In battles, during fights with the enemy, knives were used.” In this work, the author gives the name of boot knives. This name referred to knives of a special shape, worn behind the tops of boots, onuchas, etc.
The external difference of such knives was mainly reduced to a slightly curved blade with fullers, a thickened spine and an elongated handle. So, if for ordinary knives the ratio of the blade width to the thickness of the butt fluctuated by 4-6 times, then for knives of this group it was reduced to 2.0-2.5 times. The handle, like other types of knives, was solid, mounted on the shank of the blade, or stacked, consisting of a series of alternating plates mounted on the shank, or from a wide shank with two cheeks attached to it on the sides.
If you pay attention to the order in which the types of knives are listed in Savaitov’s work, it should be noted that the boot knife is given not the first, but only the third place, after the belt (waist) and podsaadachny (podsaadashny) knives. Describing the belt knives, the author writes that they had a short blade with two blades. Such knives are quite well known from archaeological finds in Moscow, Novgorod and other places. The blades of these knives are up to 9-15 cm long with a width at the heel of 20-2.5 cm. The handle is of the same design as the other types. Usually such a knife was worn in a sheath at the belt, hence
where its name comes from. If we take into account the number of archaeological finds of knives of this type and compare it with the order in which knives are listed in the named work, we can come to the conclusion that, in terms of frequency of occurrence, belt knives were apparently the most common.
The saadash knife got its name from a set of weapons called a saadak, which consisted of a bow with a bow and arrows carried in a quiver. The combat purpose of this knife follows from its very belonging to a set of weapons: it was located in a special socket in the quiver. The design of this type of knife differed from the others in that its single-edged blade was longer - about 40 cm - and wide, and the end of the blade curved slightly upward. This blade shape was most effective at piercing chain mail.
The fourth type of knife - a field knife - had a single-edged blade 20-25 cm long with a smooth transition from the blade to the tip. The cross-section of the blade was wedge-shaped. The handle of the knife was flat, tapering towards the blade, and ended with a metal cap. If the three types of knives discussed above were used equally as combat and hunting weapons, then the fourth type of knife had primarily a hunting purpose.
A number of authors express a negative opinion about the combat purpose of the knives in question. A. N. Kirpichnikov supports the opinion of A. V. Artsikhovsky, who, referring to documents, argues that the chronicle testifies to the use of knives only in “showing the unheard-of ferocity of the battle,” which, according to the chronicle, the use of knives, as a rule, is not associated with the struggle of organized masses of people, but with the combat of heroes, the murder or mutilation of a defeated and unarmed person.
In our opinion, the above arguments testify not so much against, but for combat use knives. The knife, neither at that time nor subsequently, was the main weapon used in mass battles. The main weapon of a professional warrior - a warrior of ancient Rus' - was a sword and arrows. The most common weapons that the ordinary Smerd warrior armed himself with for battle were the spear and the axe. However, this does not mean that the knife was not included among the weapons at all. Even in later times, with the advent of weapons of much greater power, the knife in one or another modification continued to remain a means of attack and active defense in cases where other types of weapons were not effective enough: in single combat, fights in close quarters, sudden and silent attacks and etc. During the Great Patriotic War the knife was also never mentioned in official reports about weapons, equipment, or trophies, although in known modifications it was in service with all armies. The same thing, apparently, was the case in former times. The census book of 1638, compiled for the sole purpose of finding out how many people and with what weapons could come to defend Moscow in the event of an enemy attack, indicates that the owners of 75 households “did not have any weapons.” This is all the more interesting because all 75 households belonged to blacksmiths, that is, people directly involved in the manufacture of metal products.
Based on the frequency of occurrence of knives as archaeological finds, it is difficult to assume that none of these householders or their relatives had a single belt, boot, or other knife at the time of the census. It remains to be assumed that the presence of such a knife was so commonplace that they simply did not pay attention to it. In the same work, the author specifically draws the reader’s attention to the fact that knives “were always carried with them, usually on a belt in a leather sheath, and were used for various needs, including cutting food.”
A similar attitude towards the knife took place among other peoples. A multi-purpose knife was most often worn on a belt and used as needed during all activities.

2. NATIONAL KNIVES AND DAGGERS

Due to geographical, climatic conditions and national traditions, each nation over time has developed its own type of knife, different from the knives of other nations. In accordance with national traditions, such knives are called national. These include Abkhaz knives (Fig. 2), Azerbaijani (Fig. 3), Buryat (Fig. 4), Karyak (Fig. 5), Lapland (Fig. 6), Nanai (Fig. 7), Nenets (Fig. 8), Tajik (Fig. 9), Turkmen (Fig. 10), Uzbek (Fig. 11), Finnish (Fig. 12), Yakut (Fig. 13), Japanese (Fig. 14), etc.

The difference between such knives lies not only in their shape, the ratio of structural elements and sizes, but also in the material from which the parts of the same name are made, in the methods and nature of decoration, wearing, etc. If, for example, Yakut or Finnish knives usually have wooden handles, then Nenets knives, like the sheath, are made of bone; Lapland knives are usually decorated with images of northern landscapes, Japanese knives are usually decorated with images of Mount Fuji or a monkey, which is considered a sacred animal. In addition, since shark fishing has been developed in Japan since ancient times, knife handles and sheaths are often covered with shark skin. At the same time, this particular material, naturally, is not typical for the national knives of continental peoples.

National knives within the same type are not exactly the same. They differ in time and place of manufacture. For example, among Uzbek national knives one can distinguish between old and modern knives, straight, which is most typical, and curved. Some differences in design are also observed in knives made at the same time, but in different geographical locations located on the territory of Uzbekistan (Chuet, Kara-Suv, etc.). Features of the place of manufacture can manifest themselves not only in the shape of the blades, but also in some other details. Among the same Tajik knives, Dushanbe knives, for example, differ in that the handle widens at the top and is slightly curved towards the blade. In addition, decorations are applied to it in the form of regularly alternating rings and eyes. In Uratyubinsk knives, the alternation of similar rings and eyes is less regular.

National knives, being one of the objects of material culture of the people, existed and developed, naturally, with the development of other objects of material culture of the same people, in particular clothing. And since both knives and clothes were constantly with a person, knives are often considered part of the national costume. In our opinion, it would be more correct to associate the presence of such knives not with people’s clothing, but in general with the CONDITIONS of their existence. This, apparently, can explain the fact that external features national knives in some cases became widespread among people of other nationalities living in similar climatic conditions, at practically achievable distances and leading approximately the same way of life (knives of the Buryats and Mongols, Finns, Karelians and Estonians, Chukchi and Karyaks, Nenets and Khanty-Mansi ). In some cases, for certain historical reasons, the same type of knife spread among many peoples. Thus, a knife with a total length of more than 400 mm (Fig. 15) was manufactured in many countries of South America.

The division of labor also required specialization of its tools. Therefore, along with the considered group of knives, another group arose - knives used only for certain purposes, primarily for household purposes. For example, fishing for sea animals among the peoples inhabiting the coastal territory required a special tool for cutting up the caught carcasses. These requirements were met by large massive knives 400-500 mm long, which the Chukchi and Karyak began to use (Fig. 16). Among the same peoples, women used knives with a total length of approximately 100 mm when doing needlework (Fig. 17). Specific knives appeared in the household. These include the so-called women's knives, used by the Nanai (Fig. 18), Nivkhs (Fig. 19), Chukchi, and Karyak (Fig. 20). The same group of national household knives can include Uzbek knives(about 400 mm long) for chopping meat (Fig. 21), Ossetian knives (about 300 mm), made entirely of horn and used for cutting weft when weaving, as well as for smoothing seams when sewing clothes (Fig. 22), Afghan knives for cutting meat (Fig. 23), etc.

Another group of national knives acquired a more pronounced character as weapons, which were used mainly in combat operations. It is characteristic that knives of this group, widely used in the last century, and in some cases even now, have pronounced national characteristics. For example, the same Afghan knives are distinguished by a massive, rather long (about 200-300 mm), almost straight butt blade, somewhat widening towards the heel with a thickness of 5-6 mm (Fig. 24). In general, they are characterized by a typical Central Asian form. The scabbard is wooden, covered with leather, with a metal device consisting of a mouth with a belt ring and a tip. The blades of Central Asian knives of this type usually have a straight, thick spine, gradually tapering towards the tip. The handle does not retract into the sheath; it is round or oval in cross-section; its shape resembles the handle of a Central Asian checker, often thickened towards the end or curved towards the blade. The same knives are from Khiva (Fig. 25), Bukhara (Fig. 26, 27), Persian, or Iranian (Fig. 28, 29), etc. Their sheaths are usually covered with leather. In some cases, they are entirely bound in gold, silver, decorated with precious stones and ornaments characteristic of the area where they are made. Turkish scimitar knives have a blade about 300 mm long and about 3 mm thick with a straight spine. The bone handle expands and bifurcates at the top, like the handle of a scimitar (Fig. 30), which is where their name comes from. Arab knives have a straight (Fig. 31) or curved (Fig. 32) blade about 400 mm long and 5-6 mm thick. The carved handle is not retracted into the sheath, but is entirely located outside. The scabbard is wooden, covered with leather or fabric, and has a metal device consisting of several rings, a mouth and a tip.

Similar knives of the peoples of Southeast Asia are also distinguished by their unique shapes. In Fig. 33, 34 show Malay knives with a blade length of 300–400 mm and a thickness of 5–7 mm. In Fig. 35 shows a combat knife of the Gurkhas, one of the nationalities of Nepal. Its blade is 400 mm or more long with a spine thickness of up to 10 mm. The handle is usually made of hardwood or horn. The knife is called “kukri”, which means a large curved knife. Indian (Fig. 36-38), Spanish (Fig. 39, 40) and other knives are also characterized by their unique forms and decorations. National knives of some peoples, in accordance with their traditions, have a highly specific purpose.

For example, a Japanese knife is known that is used to perform a suicide ceremony (Fig. 41). In general, it corresponds to the usual traditional shape of Japanese national knives, and is distinguished by the care of its manufacture. Handle and scabbard made of varnished cherry wood. The total length of the knife is about 300 mm. The samurai credo is depicted in hieroglyphs on the handle: “Death with honor.”

Along with knives, daggers were also used as weapons. In the Caucasus, two types of daggers have long existed: with a straight (Fig. 42) and a curved blade (Fig. 43) with a length of 400-600 mm. The most widespread are kama daggers with a straight blade. Their blades are parallel and come closer to the end of the blade. Blades usually have stiffening ribs and fullers. The dagger handles are small in size, narrow, with sharp expansions in both directions. They are made of bone or horn, sometimes bound with metal. The scabbard is wooden, covered with leather or forged with metal.

The bebut dagger, compared to the kama dagger, has a slightly curved end of the blade. The daggers of the peoples of the Caucasus differ in some design features, ornamentation and the method of its execution. Thus, Georgian daggers (Fig. 44) have a relatively short and wide blade and a small handle head. In addition, the handle often has studs with hemispherical heads and spacers underneath them. The edges of the spacers are cut in the shape of flower petals. Curly slots are often made on the heel of the blade. Khevsur daggers usually have a general Caucasian shape or one close to the Georgian one. The device parts of the handles and scabbards are made of brass and decorated with simple ornaments made with copper notches. Armenian daggers differ from common Caucasian daggers by the elongated head of the handle, shaped like an eastern arch. The spacers for the nail heads are diamond-shaped. Azerbaijani daggers are distinguished mainly by their ornamentation. Dagestan daggers are valued for the skill of their artistic execution. Their blades are often made according to the Lezgin type, that is, with the fullers shifted in opposite directions from the center line of the blade. The handle, metal scabbard device or solid metal frame is decorated with small stylized plant and floral patterns.

In Turkey, two types of daggers also became widespread: straight (Fig. 45) and curved (Fig. 46). Straight daggers with blades 300-400 mm long have a relatively thick handle, usually bone, sometimes forged with metal plates made of copper and silver. The scabbard, as a rule, is completely encased in metal with engraved or chased patterns. The blade can also be ornamented. The blades of curved daggers have a length of 200 mm or more. They are rarely ornamented, but if they are decorated, it is usually with gold or silver notching. The handle is thin with sharp flat extensions at both ends. The handles and sheaths are made of wood and are often completely covered with metal (copper, silver), onto which an ornament is applied by chasing or engraving. In addition, daggers
sometimes decorated with precious and semi-precious colored stones.

Iranian daggers (Fig. 47) are similar in design to Turkish curved ones, but the blade has a sharper curve and a more pronounced expansion at the heel. In addition, the blades at the tip are often made thicker to enhance fighting qualities. They are somewhat smaller in size than Turkish ones, but the handles (bone or horn) are somewhat thicker. The scabbard is wooden, covered with leather or covered with metal. There is usually no metal device. Even a sword belt ring is not always made. Sometimes the scabbard is completely encased in metal and decorated with floral and floral patterns with painted or cloisonné colored enamel.

The length of Syrian daggers (Fig. 48) is somewhat shorter compared to Turkish and Iranian ones, and the blade is slightly curved. But the sheath is sharp
bending at the end, reaching 180° or more. If Turkish and Iranian daggers have an almost flat top of the handle, then Syrian ones have a different shape. The handle itself is usually thicker than the handles of Turkish curved daggers, but thinner than Iranian ones.

Scottish daggers (Fig. 50) with a total length of about 500 mm had a wedge-shaped blade and a black wicker handle. A sheath with two additional slots in which a knife and fork were placed was attached to a leather belt. This entire set was decorated with silver and amber.

For most peoples of the African continent, the dagger was not a typical weapon; a spear was used much more often for this purpose. Nevertheless, daggers are also known in this part of the world. The most typical blade shape for the regions of central Africa is the leaf-shaped fig. 51, for regions of North Africa - less symmetrical (Fig. 52). The sizes of such daggers apparently vary widely. According to the materials at our disposal, the length of their blades is 200-250 mm.

Among the Arab tribes, another type of dagger was known, about 500 mm long, with a curved blade and an ornate handle (Fig. 53). It served as a sign of the high position occupied by its owner, and was a weapon of sheikhs and leaders.

Daggers existed in India various shapes: with straight and curved blades approximately 170–300 mm long and 3–5 mm thick. A typical representative of daggers with straight blades is the kutar, a weapon for the left hand (Fig. 54); for daggers with curved blades, the most typical are daggers with a double curve (Fig. 55, 56). Cutar blades are straight and wide, sometimes wedge-shaped and narrow. The handle is located perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the blade. At the ends of the handle, parallel to the blade, there are two metal plates that facilitate the correct position of the dagger in the hand and at the same time protect the hand from blows from the enemy from above and below. Some koutars, mainly the Marat variety, have an additional wide plate that protects the back of the hand. It is characteristic that the handles and blades of Indian daggers are made of the same material - steel and damask steel. The handle can also be made of wood or from various types of jade. Large floral designs are usually cut into jade, additionally decorated with inserts and overlays made of precious metals and stones. The tip may have a thickening. The scabbard is usually wooden, covered with leather or fabric, the mouth with a belt ring and the tip are metal. Sometimes the sheath is completely covered precious metal, decorated with floral and floral patterns and precious stones.

The daggers of the Afridis, one of the small Afghan tribes living on the northwestern border of India, have a unique shape. The blades of their daggers have a leaf-shaped curved shape with pronounced stiffening ribs located along the midline. On the sides of the stiffening ribs there are wide, flat valleys. At the heel, the blade narrows sharply. The handle of the dagger is made of bone, in the upper part it is decorated with the head of a lion (Fig. 57).

Japanese daggers (Fig. 58) have straight blades 250 mm or more long with a stiffening rib in the middle part. Between the blade and the handle there is a protective plate - “tsuba”. The handle is usually wooden, secured to the blade with a small wooden pin. The scabbard is also wooden. The handle and scabbard are covered with multi-colored multi-layer varnish, inlaid with bone or mother-of-pearl inserts, and sometimes covered with shark skin, on top of which metal parts are attached. In addition, the handles are often intertwined with colored braid in dark tones. The daggers are decorated in a characteristic Japanese style.

The characteristic daggers of Indonesia are kris (Fig. 59). The blades have a length of 300 mm or more and are distinguished by a wavy shape, symbolizing the mythical serpent Naga. It is believed that the more sinuous the blade, the more valuable it is. At the heel, the blades sharply expand, usually more in one direction. At this point they are often decorated with a notch or slotted design. The handles are made of wood, ivory, horn, silver, and gold. In form, they are mostly a stylized human torso with the head of an animal or bird, as well as their various variations on this theme.

Being one of the objects of material culture, national knives and daggers, like other things, were naturally closely connected with the entire way of life of a given people, with its customs, traditions, beliefs, often incomprehensible or seemingly unnatural for people of another nationality. This manifested itself in a variety of ways - in the number of knives or daggers, their location, etc. Thus, a traditional Javanese wears not only his own kris with his festive clothes, but also the kris inherited from his father. The groom also wears a third kris, which is presented to him by his father-in-law. The first and second kris are worn on the right, and the third on the left. In the company of high-ranking, respected people, the kris is worn only behind the belt in such a way that its handle is located at the right shoulder of the owner. In case of expected danger, all available kris rush to the left. In some cases, national knives and daggers are attributed to the manifestation of certain magical powers. There is, for example, a belief that one of the varieties of Turkmen knives “dzhoukhar-pchak” saves its owner from the machinations of evil spirits. Similar features apply to other national samples. But broad generalizations are unacceptable here, since each of these features must be considered primarily in connection with the customs and traditions of only a certain people. At the same time, it is precisely the close connection of the objects under consideration with the material and spiritual way of life of each people that is the main reason for the relative stability of each sample, its preservation over time with the succession of a number of generations.

Speaking about national knives and daggers, we deliberately draw attention to their character traits and originality, since among the same peoples, due to natural migration, trade, exchange of information and other reasons, other knives also existed and exist to this day. However, each nation has always widely used its national samples in all areas of activity.
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