New ColdSteel Russian Shasqua

It's functional. A shasqua is a very light, fast saber. The Cold Steel offering weighs about two pounds from the description off the site. That seems a bit heavy for the type from what I've heard but it's lighter than the Windlass version... makes me wonder how it would perform.

Also, the price is quite high. I can't imagine it being a horrible sword it's just a question of whether or not it's worth the risk since Cold Steel's swords aren't exactly traditional and tend to be blade heavy/overbuilt.

Did someone say shashka? Shasqua? шашка? Yeah, that's like a summoning spell for ol' Kilted Cossack! (Go figure, the name alone ought to give it away.) I feel a strange compulsion to stand up for the Windlass version of the shashka, and, possibly, for the CS version.

First off, let me say that I picked up a KOA scratch'n'dent version of the Windlass. The hilt was a little loose, so I haven't done any cutting with it, but some rough forms, and some swinging and grinning, and my conclusion was that it's "not what I'm looking for in a shashka." I keep coming back to the old Circassian saying that a shashka is, or should be, "light as a feather, flexible as a vine, sharp as a razor," and by those standards the Windlass version is made of fail.

At two and a quarter pounds, the Windlass shashka is probably about a pound heavy . . . for a shashka. Let me stamp my foot and repeat that: for a shashka. With that said, the blade seems to have a good head treatment, decent distal taper, and a good edge, albeit with the typical secondary bevel one finds on sharpened Windlass products. The Point of Balance is not out of bounds for a saber, and the fairly heavy brass furniture is well cast (certainly for the price point). It's a cutter, it certainly falls within Dave Kelly's (pbuh) criteria for even a fencible saber . . . .

It just doesn't feel like a shashka to me. If I can't figure out a way to reuse the blade with different furniture, I'll just put it back together and get it nice and tight, but it won't scratch my shashka itch.

Makes perfect sense. Though you should amend it to a niuweidao, as it reminds me of a saying regarding the oxtail dao I once heard: if you're taking off pounds of flesh with each swing, it doesn't really matter where you hit.

For $700 if you keep your eye out, you can probably pick up an antique from WWII. Even though I like Shasquas, I wouldn't pay that much for a repro.

If CS list prices were legitimate, KoA and True Swords wouldn't be selling them for what they do and still be making some modicum of profit out of them. :roll:

You got me there. :lol: Yeah it makes sense. I'm assuming you mean in the way that it is supposed to be used. The jian is more on the delicate/fine side, aiming for deadly spots. When the dao is more "COME HERE I'MA LOP UR ARM OFF!"
Not that they both require their own deal of skill and discipline to wield.






Hahaha. I never heard that saying before. That's great

One question that still remains in my mind: I know that Alexander III decreed that the shashka would be the cold arm of the Army, but I don't know how "true to its roots" the shashka remained after that time. I can well imagine that, whether due to military obstinacy or adherence to tradition, the "military shashka" remained more saber like, more sword like, starting from thicker stock and exhibiting greater distal taper. Maybe the military versions looked like a shashka, but handled like a saber---just one of those things I don't know.

You mean like how the Persian shashka handles?

My mistake, I meant the Persian dragoon saber (for some reason also referred to a shashka).
That one handles like a German heavy saber. For a slashing weapon on horseback, it is ok, but nothing like a good old shashka.

Mass produced military Russian dragoon shashkas (mainly those with the knuckle bow) were heavier and less well balanced but it doesn't mean they were of lousy quality. Some other military issued shashkas (circassian, traditional ones) who were mostly kept for Cossacks (Volga, Don, etc), were still light while following military regulations, for example the kind of thing this guys uses: .

It's a bit like the Japanese military gunto: since most were for military use and mass produced, they did not have the same attributes found on the traditional katanas.