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The blade is steel, curved, single-edged.
Curvature- and decoration-wise and in fuller character the blades
were arbitrary.
The hilt comprises a grip with pommel and a
guard. The grip is wood, covered in leather, featuring transverse
grooves and bound in the grooves with twisted wire (Fig.
59 A), or horn (Fig.
59 B). The grip's back is surmounted by
a metal back- -piece
sweeping into a pommel; shaped as a bird's head. The
guard is formed by
a cross-guard piece with a double langet and
a knuckle
bow, leaving it a right angle, its upper end joining the
pommel. The double langet
is shaped into a straight faceted bar.
All the hilt's metal parts are gilt.
The scabbard is wood, covered in dark-green
velvet. The metal slit mount is known to come in two variations:
a) solid with two long figured slits, featuring two bands with
(loose-)
ring fitments to take the belt suspension's straps and a
shoe; b)
featuring a locket and a chape. The locket is pierced
out with two round holes, the chape - with one long slit. The
locket and the chape are clasped with one figured band each
bearing a (loose-)
ring fitment to take the belt suspension's straps. The
chape ends in a shoe. The bands are gilt. Overall length is about
1,000 mm, the blade's length is
about 800
mm, the width and curvature
of the blade are arbitrary, the mass - about 1,700 gr. The "clytch" (shamshir)
was only carried outside formation by the Life Guard's Ataman regiment
officers, probably, after 1909 till the end of the period
considered.
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