The tradition of manufacturing national knives, which occupies an important place in Uzbek culture, has been preserved for centuries, transmitted from fathers to sons.
Authentic Uzbek knives (pchaki), made by Uzbek masters, resemble a work of art.
Although the manufacture of knives is widespread in the cities of Samarkand and Bukhara, as well as the Chuset and Shakhrikhan in the Ferghana Valley, about handmade knives produced in Chusta and Shakhrikhan, they know even outside the country.
PCAK manufacturing skills are usually transmitted from father to son. Although the manufacture of national knives is not widespread in all regions of the country, manual knives are among the essential objects of every Uzbek family.
Uzbek knives can simultaneously be an additional accessory of the home interior and a functional item in kitchen space or in nature.
The traditions of the Uzbeks associated with knives
Uzbeks attach special importance to the knife, which in the past was considered the most necessary working tool and decoration of a man, and not a kitchen tool. Knives are present in almost all aspects of the life of the Uzbeks.
According to Uzbeks, customs, it is believed that a knife laid under a pillow sleeping one in a child’s room, as if protecting it from evil.
according to another tradition, widespread in the country, the bride’s younger brother is the first to receive a knife as a gift from a son -in -law who takes his sister from the house.
Thus, the Uzbek family in exchange for a precious daughter receives a handmade knife that occupies an important place in Uzbek culture.
In general, a handmade knife is available in every Uzbek house. Uzbeks believe that PCAK protects both the house itself and the residents from evil.
If earlier, Uzbek men were customary to wear handmade knife in leather scabbards on a belt, then in recent years this custom gradually goes into oblivion.
However, the value that the Uzbeks gave the knife did not decrease, and if the knife adorned male belts earlier, now it decorates the walls of the houses.
In the Uzbek markets there are special sites where handmade knives are sold with traditional ornaments. The sale of knives are usually engaged in the masters of knives themselves, who help their customers choose knives in accordance with their needs.
– I learned to make knives before I learned to read and write
A resident of the Historical Uzbek city of Samarkand Abbas Sultanov told the Anadola correspondent that he learned to master the manufacture of knives from his father and grandfather. Abbas, together with his father, is engaged in the manufacture of knives in a family workshop.
“I learned to make knives before I learned to read and write,” he says.
According to the man, the manufacture of knives, which is carried out by forging hot iron and working with steel, is a difficult profession.
However, the profession does not seem difficult to Sultanov himself, since he learned to her at a very young age.