Ajaha cymbals were made by Tosco in Italy during the 1970s for Gretsch. Slingerland and Ludwig had their stencil cymbals as well. I have a set of Kashians, which were the Slingerland stencils, also made in Italy, and I love them. Seriously nice sound. They all had Turkish sounding names, but they were all Italian. For sure they were trying to cash in on the Zildjian name and reputation.

Your cymbals should be made with B20 bronze, which is the best, and being it's hand signed by the bell, it would be an early example, like early 70s. Cool hammering.

That is an X E Ajaha cymbal. Made in Italy. That trademark belongs to Gretsch who registered the trademark some time prior to 1912 (Rob Cook, The Gretsch Drum Book, 2013:248) That is an early one, not 1970s. Could be anywhere in the 1920s to the 1940s or maybe later. The general pattern with these Italian cymbals is that they look like their Turkish cousins from the same production era. This one doesn't look 1970s in the least.

During some years Gretsch had their Ajaha cymbals manufactured by some members of the UFIP collective. Accordingly Ajaha appears on the UFIP list of stencil brands.

[img]http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=130127&d=1583890195[/img]

However, there is some evidence that in other years Gretsch had contracted their manufacture to other Italian manufacturers. Not every Italian cymbal is UFIP, and Tosco was always an independent manufacturer who were not part of the UFIP collective (later a limited liability company). The two main works on Italian cymbals are Luca Luciano Italian Vintage Drums and Cymbals 2012, and Hugo Pinksterboer, The Cymbal Book , 1992.

Pinksterboer mentions Ajaha on p172 under Tosco, but that would refer to later cymbals as Tosco only operated from 1974 - 1986 or so. Luciano also mentions Gretsch having their Ajaha cymbals made by Tosco (p124). Neither he nor Pinksterboer really go into the other Italian manufactures of Ajaha over the decades.

Thanks for correcting my dating.

They were made until the end of the 70s, not just in the 70s.

Thanks for the info Zenstat. Your knowledge on these things amaze me.

I do believe this is from the 30’s / 40’s because it came with a trap kit I recently bought.

I have 5 others I am trying to identify.

I know 2 are Zildjian and another has the round “made in Italy” stamp on inside bell.

The other 2 are unknown. I will start a new thread for those. Thanks again for your wealth of knowledge, appreciated.

Thanks also Jimmysticks for getting it going.

Wayne