I didn't attack anyone here. And regardless of whether you agree with my reasoning, I get to decide how I spend my money. My post was a PSA. The nationality of Julius is irrelevant. A person is responsible for his posts, and I found his offensive.
That aside, I'll have to agree with Jenni, that there are good and bad. I own a Russian knife, and its a winner. Crappy knives are made in every country in the world. Just as good ones come from everywhere too. You can get a POS made in America, and you can get a damn fine knife made in China. You've just gotta know where to look.
I modded my Russian knife recently and made a kydex sheath for it. Real cutter. Thin bladed and light. The handle fits your hand like God intended a knife to be there. Pics:
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pettyness aside,,
the knfie you have form the firm "rosarms" ... this type of knife is called the "zlatoust" style
there is 3 destinct trypes of russian knives made in several areas in russia..
the "zlatoust" as yours.. normaly zlatoust is unpolished. hollow ground and has natural materials for thanddle.. there are normlay birch burl.. leather soaked in wax and resin. or compressed birch bark,
zlatoust is around the area of lake bikal, and birch is very very common, hardwood is uncommon.
sheaths are made from nromaly black or brown leather. they are ushaly of a specific style, and traditionlay this area they always used the pillar studs on the sheaths, eithe rof alloy or brass.
the sheaths ar enormaly the most "western" looking of the russian sheaths.
there is about 20 firms in zlatoust making knvies , i do not know if any grind with a machine..
the gurads can be wood, brown or ornage textolite. or alloy..
the baldes are normaly 95x18 or 110x18 steel or other higher alloy steels made in the area of zlatoust..
some zlatoust firms are better with quality than others, A&R has the best reputation in russia.
i have owned a rosarms "russian hunter" and a a&r hunting knfie, that i dont recall the name of old thingy..
normaly the baldes are not decorated much , and the etched pictures are of poor quality, if they have any,, ushaly a dog or a bear or a moose or such, but, in this area gold inlay of images is common and on simple hunting knvies it can be had.. in other areas of russia this is only done on high prices knives..
zlatoust is not making much in the area of damascus steel or modern bulat knives, and are not large suppliers of the military for knvies..
the artistic knvies and swords tend to be highly decorated with gold inlay. which is the zlatoust speciality, aswell as enamel
the area has many hunter and there knvies come form the basic styles of knife used there..
next is the vorsma area of knvies, the traditionlal area of soviet knif eproduction, with large frims such as trud producing large amounts of axes and kitchen knvies ther,e
apart ofr the lever lock autos. and chepa horrid horrid horrid nightmear pocket knvies :S :O.... so bad even the chines ewoudl laugh, although the autos are better and ok for the price (damascus steel bladed auto is about 30$.. wood looks like pine :O! but the locks are realy solid ..)
vorsma mad emedical toold and pen knvies during soviet times, i had a little pipe knife some place, with a enamel inlayed copper grip,, and aboui 15 differne tblades,, all the sie of a match box.. not bad , although most that ive seen .. were :barf:
their hunting knvie sof this area, which again has about 20 companines. are destinct again.
they ar eknown for thier picnic sets which ushaly have an ace hunting knife pocket knvie drinking set and shashlik set... and come in a decorated leather sutecase.. they cna eb had in many variations , even with all perts made form damascus steel.
mostly the knvies have the same basic shapes and the zlatoust , but the blades normaly have nd groves, hollow ground and gloss polished, the guards are alloy or duralium or titanium.. (one i saw..
) and are sometimes decroated with floral punch work.. the blades are normaly not decorated
sometimes bronze of brass decorated cast guards can be seen, and also sometimes etched images are seen on the blades , but this is a "kizlyar" phenomenon... ..zlatoust having its own style of etching.. not related to kizlyar.
handle material is normaly oak, which is common around vorsma .. as is duralium and alloy
steels is normlay 45x13 or 65x13 or other related steels. .. like 440a or such.. which are produced int he area.
guards can be sometimes steel to. but very uncommon,
the sheaths are very destincted though,
they are normaly made fomr a mix of yellow and black leather
the main sheath being a yellowish leather and the stiching be done with a black leather thong.
the sheath then has a linde rwithin the outer sheathmad eform harder thick leather, rolled over.. the belt loop is a made from slotting the leather . like on some german on english cheapo export knvies.. but it is normlay made fomr two sheets of leathe rnot one and very thick..
the lite colored leathe ris ushaly stamped , pressed or pyro-etched with a hot tool to depicted an image ,a deer or a fish or such on the leather..
vorsma is alos a larg elarge producer of damascus steel blades.. and damascus baldes can be had very cheaply fomr many firms there.
quality is 50/50 and they use not steel well suted to contrasting the pattern,, however wiht they large amount of mechnical equiptment ther eit ie easy to produce enmass..
the area is not know for quality demask.. and the firms ther edont attempt to be knwon for making it..
they are normaly making cheap hunting modles with damascus blades that the average person in russia with a job can afford..
i woudl like to call these guys the nail cutter firms, as on the rusian show klinok they always like to cut nails with their knives to show how har dthey are ect ect..
these firms make alot of dedical tools,
so hence companys such as "medtec" are knife firms..
the name vorsma is known in russia when talking of knives....
"kizlyar". or more correctly dagestan... a mahachkala has several firms aswell as ther eis small smiths in some mountian villages making kindjals and shashkas to sell in mahachkala or in rusisa proper..
in dagestan before the apperarence of the "kizlyar" style ,, moslty traditional swords and daggers, and simple thin bladed hunting knvies were made. aswell and blacksmith forged pocket knvies,, although thes elast wer eonly sold in and around dagestan and of illegal production..
in the beginning of the 90s witht eh rusisans military skrimishing in the area with local nationalists, and later with the first chachen war, aswell and a break down in the enforcement of laws regarding the ownership of knvies swords and guns,,, knives became suddenly a popular item , but ther ewa sno firm to make them...
dagestan had only, a small kitchen knfie company in derbent.. making elcheapo steak knives..
so the first form , the original firm "kizlyar" which i am. working with,, appeared....
moslty selling knives to the rusisan military, and to the locals, son this exsploded, as alll over russia knife firms appeared, and kizlyar soon becasme the largest makder of .. non kitchen knvies,...
mainly beciase of the dagestanis strong knife cultur ,, and the north caucasusu's taste for knvies, and the rusisans military, mvd and fsb all coming through the city in hunge numbers, also in and around the city hunting is common..
once the market reached compleatly around rusisa and the crazy soviet laws were removed employees began to leave the company and statr their own frims, taking the "kizlyar" style with them..
in kizlyar ther eis 5 other firms that have the "kizlyar " style..
that is ,, multi grooved bladed knives ,, either damascus or stainless steel.. very contured handles .,,, many with large finger notched.. ushaly made from local walnut.. sheaths normaly stamped with imaged, such as imam shamil, eglas.. huhnters, mongol worriors, wolves.. floral patters..
blades engraved with poisonous aminals ,, or bears, wolves.. or floral pattersm ushaly deep etched into the blade sna dblackened using black chrome,,
theaths normaly riveted not stiched and made from black leather,
or sheaths sticked and with a complexed construction.. sometimes laced instead of stiched ( to hard to explani, takes about 12 or mor eparts and 3 layers.. frst sheath maker was making shoes before and some make sheaths like shoe :O.. kizlyar still uses these sheaths on their damascus knives and such)
..
there is also about 6 firms in mahachkala making knives like this..
the kizlyar "art" or damasucs knives also have a distinct stly, many having cast silver animal heads and fancy odd shaped blades and countured handles...
the odd shaped handles, riveted sheaths, use of walnut deep etching on blades, and multi grooved blades are recognised as "dagestani" or "kizlyar" style knives........
the kizlyar engraving when it appeared at the time.. was something new, and exsotic,.. and so many new firms adpoted this style, and ti is still popular with rusisans although many "knifeomans" do not like this fomr of decoration or damascus knvies the average russian does...
(the kifeomans like x12mf or carbon steels and neck knives and such .. and spyderco,, and military or tactical knvies .., ect ect........... not all but the most.. dont like the "russian" style that is liked by most rusisans )
there is also other destinct styles. such as the knvie sof rthe maker Skrilov.. who is "known" in russia, some like him .. many other dont
but he make smany original knvies ... and they have his own ideas incorperatedinto them, his style is normlay followed in facotries wher ehis knvies have been made, such as in the saro factory,,.......
some knvies mad ein russia are realy quite bad and ther ehas always been a tradition of making knives in prisons........
ive owned some prison knvie,s some are good some are bad and some are totaly mad.
i saw one with lennin and stalin and marks on the blade once.. looked like a shashka and a bowie knife combined :S :O
prison knvie sagian have thier own types,, pen knvies,, normaly simpleand traditional,, (inmate proably didnt get any more form putting more than one blade on them)... mny have the shape of a bottle of wine or a womans leg or such. other look like nomrla long bladed pen knvies.
folding spikes of sorts...
militaryish looking bowie type knvies ,
artic or scandinavian knives..
automatic knvies, normaly with some weird lock..
ethinc or traditional looking knvies, sometimes with painted handles..
and then jsut the odd crazy prisoners knfie .. made with totaly original thinking.
prison knvies are normaly the worst quality, but ive never seen one that was not realy sharpened to a thin egde, so i guess the guys in prison know what how to do that.
the heat treatment of rusisan knvies and the quality of russian steel is suspect.. and many tiime sthe steel is not as good as it is said, ro it is not hard enought, ro the steel merchant provides different steel and says it is a better mark..
and that is russian knvies.......
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