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Knife-making schools and technology

Lessons 8 · 1 lessons · O. A. Qo‘ysinov, O‘. O. Tohirov, D. N. Mamatov, D. F. Aripova. Labour education (Mehnat ta’limi), Grade 9: methodical guide for teachers. Delta-Print, Tashkent, 2017. Note: this is a teacher’s guide, not a student textbook (lesson plans for the “Technology and design”, “Service” and “Basics of agriculture” directions). The course is built from the lesson-plan topics of the “Technology and design” direction; the “Iroqi” skullcap lesson comes from the “Service” direction, and lesson 25 (joining parts) is written from the topic listed in the guide’s calendar plan.
8

Knife-making schools and the technology of making a knife

Teacher’s guide: pp. 25–29
GoalKnow what makes the knife-making schools of Uzbekistan distinctive and learn the technological sequence of making a knife.
New words
knife-making school (local style) · pichoqchilik maktabihardening (steel) · toblashmarking out · rejalashfinishing · pardozlash
Explanation

Uzbekistan has many knife-making centres: the Fergana Valley, Samarkand, Bukhara, Tashkent, Khorezm, Kashkadarya and Surkhandarya have been known since long ago. Each centre or “school” differs in the shape, size, method and decoration of its knives. Chust knives are famous for a longer handle and blade, simplicity and hardness; Qorasuv knives have yorma or suqma handles, a sharp blade and a handle decorated with chilmix studs and “eyes”, and one of the famous masters of this school was Asqarkhoja Oysarkhojayev (1878–1964) who lived in the village of Qorasuv in the Andijan region; Khiva knives are known for delicate shapes and a metal-decorated sheath, Shahrikhon knives for suqma handles and little decoration, and Kokand knives for a wide, thick, slightly long blade. The sequence of making a knife is: prepare the pieces of metal and plastic, measure and mark them, cut out the blade and handle, drill holes for fixing, fit the handle and finish. A real steel blade is heated and hammered by a master, hardened (heated and cooled quickly) and sharpened; in the school workshop students do not heat, harden or sharpen — that is the master’s or teacher’s job. Cutting and filing a study sample are done under the teacher’s supervision, with the piece clamped in a vice, safety goggles and work gloves; when a hole is made on the drilling machine, gloves are taken off, because the rotating drill can catch them.

Worked examples
A knife in an exhibition: long blade, wooden handle, simple and hard — this fits the Chust style; a Khiva knife differs by its delicate shape and the metal pattern on its sheath.
A study sample in the school workshop: clamp a metal plate in the vice, mark it, cut by hand with a hacksaw, smooth the edges with a file — all under the teacher’s supervision. The edge is not sharpened; the edges are left blunt.
Class activity

Map game: the stages of making a knife are written on separate cards (cutting, marking, drilling, fitting the handle, finishing). Groups put the cards in the right order and say what protection each stage needs.

Practice
1
Which school’s knives are known for a longer handle and blade and for simplicity?
2
Where did the master Asqar live and in which years?
3
Write the stages of making a knife in the right order: finishing, marking, cutting, preparing the blank, drilling.
4
Why is a steel blade hardened?