Anticipation: is it or isn't it somali?

[kronckew]

just picked this up on ebay, described as a 'rare vintage native hunting knife'
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s231/kronckew/billao.jpg
6 in. blade, 10 in. loa.

looked like a somali billao dagger shaped blade from the scabbard, only pic on ebay, am looking forward to see the whole knife & blade. ebay item no. 300273343158

[Martin Lubojacky]

Hello, you can find variations of this knife in southeastern and southern Ethiopia.
Regards,

Martin

[Lew]

I would say it started out as a billao dagger.

Lew

[kronckew]

it arrived today, after cleaning off the cosmoline on the blade:

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s231/kronckew/Ethiopian/Dagger001.jpg

not exactly what i'd expected from the scabbard shape, but interesting. guard appears to be aluminum and horn spacer, brass, alumminum and horn grip with a heavier brass pommel, roughly hand checkered.

[Lew]

Kronch

Click here and you will see Tim's bone hilted billao thats how yours started out. Someone decided to regrind yours into a standard dagger shape.

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=1031&highlight=billao+dagger

[kronckew]

that's more what i was expecting, oh, well, still makes a nice dagger.