Restoration of an Antique Dagestan Dagger

Hi! Today I am working on the restoration of a Dagestan dagger made by a Lak master (The Laks are a Northeast Caucasian people indigenous to Lakia, a mountainous inland region of Dagestan in the North Caucasus.). The type of dagger is Caucasian. Its initial condition was poor: a cracked handle, deep rust on the blade, and the absence of scabbard fittings as well as the scabbard itself. But now I am going to fix all of this. Let’s begin restoring this Caucasian dagger.

First of all, I carefully removed the remaining part of the scabbard with its silver suspension that was still attached to the blade near the handle. I brushed off the rust and dismantled the handle. Once the handle was opened, it became clear that it was not the first handle mounted on this blade. Therefore, the blade is old. I placed it in a rust remover and began restoring the horn plates. Since the horn is old, the work had to be done very carefully. I used special cleaning agents to clean the plates, then sanded the inner part with sandpaper. I filled the cracks. Once the handle was ready, I moved on to restoring the blade itself.

Unfortunately, I forgot to press the camera button, so I didn’t capture the moment of removing the blade and immersing it into the cleaning solution. My apologies. After cleaning, I started with light grinding and correcting the blade’s shape, since corrosion had eaten away parts of the steel and caused unevenness. Then I polished the blade with fine-grit sandpaper. Once the process was complete, I washed the blade, oiled it, and moved on to restoring the silver parts — the rivets that secure the handle to the blade. This was not easy, but my experience helped. I used a copper tube, flux, and silver solder. After soldering everything again and riveting the handle back, I proceeded to making the scabbard.

For the scabbard, I took dry wood, two planks, and carved out the shape. After gluing them together, I left it overnight. In the morning, however, I discovered that the width didn’t fit either the suspension or the dagger itself once it would be covered with leather. I had to redo it from scratch. The second time it worked out. After drying, I carefully processed the scabbard, because the silver suspension was too narrow and securing it was not easy. The next step was the lower mount, the so-called chape of the scabbard. For this, I purchased a fully engraved silver detail. The base of the chape I made from nickel silver, soldered it, and shaped it with files. Once the part was attached, I made sure the scabbard was ready for leather covering.

I used natural leather with a beautiful texture, wrapped the scabbard, and added velvet to the end, as was often done historically. After this, the work was completed. I liked the result — the blade turned out wonderful.
Thank you for your attention! Be sure to share this video.

Sincerely, Alex. Thanks for attention!
Good luck and health to everyone! With best wishes, Alex!
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Видео Restoration of an Antique Dagestan Dagger канала Screws And Tools