Zavorotko I. (2015). O proizvodstve sabel’ i shashek v Pavlovskom staleslesarnom [On the Manufacturing of the Sabers and Swords in the Pavlovsk Steelworker’s District]. Istoricheskoe oruzhievedenie [Weapons History Journal], № 2, pp. 53 — 62.
Abstract: The author analyses the data on the manufacturing of arms blanch (saber and cavalry sword blades) in the Pavlovsk steelworker’s district which was a part of both Nizhniy Novgorod and Vladimir provinces in the second half of the 19th century. The information was got from the primary sources – special and public periodic editions and catalogues of industry exhibitions organized from 1829 to 1914. Besides, the author managed to systematize the data on the types of goods in the field of arms blanch and the main producers – Varipaev, Zavjalov, Koritsev, Korobkov, Buslaev, Beljaev, Tsvetov, Kondratjev, in whose workshops saber, cavalry sword, broad sword and dagger blades were made. There were introduced the unique papers concerning the organization of blade making, the technology of the process and the quality control in the second half of the 19th – the first quarter of the 20th century. On the grounds of collected data it is possible to state that the making of saber and small sword blades were organized in the old local handicraft knife workshops. The blades forged by the Pavlovsk blacksmiths were shown at the industry exhibitions. Some musters started working on order of the Russian Tsar family and the king of Denmark. The author specifically stresses the increase of production of arms blanch when of the Civil war began, which put aside the manufacturing of objects of everyday life. The analysis permits to state that in the second half of the 19th – the first quarter of the 20th century in the Pavlovsk steelworker’s district there were organized both handicraft making and manufacturing of sabers and cavalry swords existed till at the least end of 1924. It is during the Civil war that the change of the handicraft making of arms blanch to its mass production was made – before the Russian revolution this problem was not solved. The data on the steel mark called “Iliya Muromets” which was produced for blade making at the Putilovskiy factory seems to be unique.
Keywords: the Pavlovsk steelworker’s district, blade, sabers, cavalry swords, handicraft