custom Ottoman yataghan from France (Bernard Delor- Orient balde project)
ivory grip, silver fittings, damascus blade, with inscription in Arabic- approx: grant the owner of this sword victory, grant the family od his enemy deep sorrow

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More on the work and maker

http://www.swordforum.com/forums/showthread.p...e-Yataghan

http://www.orient-blades.com/index.php/en/orient-blades-project

Cheers

GC

Ronald: That is a very nice piece! Are you the lucky owner, or simply one who appreciates yataghans? The mammoth ivory and silver fittings make for a stunning appearance; I particularly enjoy the "still life with books and yataghan" photo.

Glen: Since this is a (rare!) yataghan thread, could I ask you a couple of questions about the yataghan in your collection? Overall length, weight, blade profile?

Regards,

Lewis

Brilliant looking work.

Gentlemen the maker Brian Delor in France can answer details on how it was created. Type in Orient Blades in search to find his website. Ran into financial mess near the end of the project, when everything crashed last yr. Fortunatley, didnt have to sell it. Shipping was a big cost too. Started at 6600 euro and with extras, I think we came out at 8800 euro and 800 euro to ship, and customs here got 260$ so over 10 thou in all. Only yataghan I have. Next project with him is a Kindjal, Shashka pair. I am a Psychiatrist, so have a little more money than most to create what I want, rathe than buying replicas.

Glen:

Many thanks for the statistics. Once more I am reminded of how little I am able to trust first impressions! My initial thought, when I first ran across images of the yataghan, was that the blade would run to being a heavy and brutish chopper, while those numbers sound like a much faster and more agile blade.

Ronald:

Once more, a wonderful piece, and I can only imagine a "Turkish delight" set with a kindjal and shashka to boot.

Regards,

Lewis

Every day I'm forced to add another sword to my list of "must have". This is such a sword. What perfect workmanship!

Dear friends,
I very lately discovered your comments. Thanks to Ronald for showing, and to all of you for appreciating !
As mentioned above, the real yatagan is a very light, mobile and flexible saber. There has been a lot of them made in the late XIX century years, which were only "tourist" artifacts, and sometimes quite far from the real usable blade geometry ! Also, there were some real genuine ones being for ceremony purpose, not for fighting. So the sizes and thicknesses might vary a lot from one piece to another.
Kind regards,
Bernard

There can be a lot of diversity in blades, even on non-tourist/decorative ones, depending on exactly what one classifies as "yataghan". If one is willing to include karakulak as yataghans, then that adds a whole lot of heavy-bladed weapons.

Example of variety:
(a) A classic yataghan blade the length of a katana blade, with new grip, 400g (probably about 500g with original grip), photo attached.
(b) Karakulak, 10.5" blade, 475g.

(A karakulak is a Balkan knife/sword, like a yataghan, but with an integral bolster and heavy blade. See http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=23504 for some discussion of them.)

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400 gram yataghan