K Zildjian Istanbul is name of the company that first started creating Zildjian cymbals in the 1600's. The K Zildjian company continued to exist and manufacture cymbals that were all hand hammered in Istanbul until the mid 1970's. Brothers Kerope and Avedis Zildjian had a falling out resulting in Avedis taking his knowledge of the Zildjian secret alloy and move to the US where he started the Avedis Zildjian company.
In the mid 70's, after Kerope's death, problems started brewing in Istanbul. At this point, the sons of Avedis, Armand and Robert, had assumed control of the operations of the A Zildjian company and attempted to help out the struggling K Zildjian company. They eventually flew a handful of the K Zildjian cymbalsmiths to Canada where the Avedis Zildjian company had opened a new factory. From '75 to '79, the K Zildjian cymbalsmiths hand hammered cymbals that today are know as the Early American K's, or EAK's. At the end of the 70's, Armand and Robert had a falling out (which seems to be common amongst siblings within the Zildjian family tree) and Robert took control of the Canadian factory and formed Sabian.
Today, no Zildjians are made in Turkey. Turkish alloy is another name for B20 alloy which many high end cymbals are made from such as all of the cast cymbals from Zildjian and Sabian, the Paiste Twenty series, Bosphorus, Istanbul, Spizzichino, and on an on.
China's cymbal and gong making history dates back thousands of years. Take Wuhan cymbals, for instance. If you look at the bell of the Wuhan china, it's squared off. The reason for this is that the bells of these cymbals are actually handles. These kinds of cymbals where actually used in pairs, similar to marching or orchestral cymbals. The were often used in battle to strike fear into the opposition. It wasn't until much later did someone think to drill a hole in "bell" so that it could be mounted on a cymbal stand.
China still produces cymbals to this day. The province of Wuhan is one of the most notable for they cymbal heritage. Wuhan brand cymbals and the Dream cymbals are still hand hammered in this province to this day. The alloys used are essentially a B20, but because of the actual ratios of copper and tin that are in some of those pies, they could actually be anything from B25 to B20.
Bottom line is that the B20 alloy used for many professional cymbals is considered to be a Turkish alloy, hence the phrase "Genuine Turkish Cymbals" gets thrown around quite a bit. Please let me know if you have any questions or anything I've stated needs clarification. Thanks.
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