Do any of you own a Yataghan?

S

stevomiller

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May 4, 2001
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I was wondering if any forumite had a yataghan that they could trace and write down the dimensions for me. I would like to start work on a model that I could send to Uncle Bill. Any help would be appreciated. Thanx in advance, and wish me luck. Sincerely, Steve
 
Is Yataghan that game with the five dice? When you roll five of a kind you're supposed to yell yataghan!!! :D
 
Originally posted by BruiseLeee
Is Yataghan that game with the five dice? When you roll five of a kind you're supposed to yell yataghan!!! :D
Click to expand...

No, silly...that's a Yahtzee Dao, the game where the loser REALLY loses :eek:
 
Steve,

The UBE with its double recurve can in essence be considered as the same type of blade form, though some yataghans have only a simple downward curve. I have two UBE's and am glad of it.
 
I have access to a few yataghans. What dimensions do you want and what length? They can be fairly short and of course their most notable feature are the large 'ears' at the pommel.
 
How much do yataghans go for? Just curious, would like to own one someday.

Ryan
 
<img src="http://public.srce.hr/hpm/m018500v.jpg"><br>

It's a Turkish or Mid-eastern sword. The blade is slightly forward curved, a little like a khukuri, but it is not as pronounced nor is it as wide. I like to think of it as a somewhat straightened-out HI Kobra :)
 
Ruel also has a pretty nice old Yataghan. It has sustained some rust damage over the years, but at one time was an excellent blade.
It has some nice silverwork and coral inlay on the handle and the best I can recall some writing on the blade, can't recall if it was in gold or not? Ruel?

It's fascinating to me that countries like Nepal, Turkey and others that aren't close to the sea as well as Arizona and New Mexico ndns using so much coral for decorations on their personal items. I can see the use of turquoise as it can be found there or nearby.
I noticed on a piece from Nepal I think it was the other day of the difference in turquoise from China and surrounding countries and turquoise found in the desert southwest. The diffences are very noticable for me. The Chinese turquoise has more matrix found evenly throughtout the piece usually and the color isn't quite as 'ripe' to me either. The Chinese and surrounding area's turquoise seems to usually be kinda bland to me.
But that's from an ndn whose favorite turquoise is still the Kingmans and similar dark turquoises.
I have just within the last couple of years began to appreciate the paler and greenish shade turquoises from other mines.
I LOVE Turquoise!!!!!!!!
 
I HAD one...:( That one I brought to Catoosa ended up having to be sold...

I still have some pix of it, though it saddens me to look. Kinda like looking at pix of old girlfriends, which is why I don't have any anymore:

yat1.jpg

yat2.jpg

yat3.jpg

yat4.jpg


I think the lettering was silver.
 
ruel, wow :eek: that is a beauty! I wish I could afford something like that.

Ryan
 
The local rock shop had a photo showing typical turquoise in the band from just north of here in a line down into I forget - maybe AZ/NM. Really shows a progression and a good student woould probably be able to tell you inside 20 or 30 miles where it came from. Just by looking at color and matrix type.
 
John, the dimensions I would be interested in would be: blade thickness at handle/blade junction, distal blade thickness (before edge bevel, handle thickness on main body, handle thickness at "ears". These measurements will help me keep the "spirit" of the sword. I don't want to reinvent a square wheel. Thank you very much, Steve Miller
 
Steve,

The dimensions on yatagans tend to vary greatly. But, the workmanship on many surviving examples is tremendous. You would be better served by trying to hunt down a good example, then by trying to reproduce it. I doubt there are more than a handful of makers worldwide who can make a decent yatagan, and the price for something like that would put it well into the art/investment knife catagory ($5,000-10,000+++).

If it is just the blade shape that you are interested in, you may want to look at some mid 19th century bayonets. Virtually every Western military issued large Yatagan bladed bayonets from 1840-1880s. Some of these can be had for as little as $100.

n2s
 
I saw a thread on swordforum maybe a month ago that said Armart might be making a Yataghan repro. I go do a little searching and see if I can find the thread.

Ryan
 
A depiction of a yataghan blade that reminds me very much of the UBE is in Burton's "Book of the Sword" on page 134 in the Dover 1984 edition. The scabbard looks improbably narrow though.
 
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