Help identifying possible North African dagger
 

Hello

New to the forums, so hopefully I got everything right here. I recently acquired a dagger in Marrakech, Morocco from what seemed to be a "non-shady" place :). The seller told me that the dagger was an original as opposed to a reproduction - I have no way of knowing whether that was a true statement or not. I purchased it more because I thought it was an interesting piece rather than any attempt to become a collector.

I've searched through the internet and cannot find a dagger that looks anything like it at all (other than the slight curvature), and am very curious as to whether anyone can identify what type of dagger this is, where it came from ethnographically, and if anyone could hazard a guess as to its age. I can add more pictures if anyone needs more detail.

Thanks in advance for any insights!

Hello, rakdagger

Unfortunately, the seller either did not know about this dagger himself, or deceived you. This is a modern dagger, most likely made in Pakistan in the late 20th or early 21st century...

Thanks. The closest I found was this at Mughal Turkish Ottoman Dagger - the bad itself looks very similar to that, but yeah - like I say - it was kind of an impulse purchase more than anything else. And a good talking point.

Tourist piece. Live and learn.--bbjw

Indian 21st c dagger
 

I have to agree with both other chaps observations here, touristic stuff like this was being sold on ebay some years ago out of India, likely they got all over the globe since those days.
In the game of antique edged weapons one must be careful, that said this is obviously bereft of any age and as new, no patina, no use marks, brand new I would say and I hope purchased without to much loss to the contents of ones purse :). Snody

New Chilanum
 

Hi rakdagger,

Sorry but what Turkoman.kahn and BBJW have told you is correct. Your dagger is a modern made version of the traditional Indian chilanum. Modern reproductions of traditional Indian weapons abound. The blade of your dagger is made with a bird's eye damascus pattern which I have been told by a smith is the simplest mechanical damascus pattern to make. Whenever you see bird's eye damascus on a blade, unless there is strong evidence of age, a red flag should go up.

Sincerely,
RobT

Thanks all - much appreciated. At least I know what to look out for in the future. Hehehe. Oh well.

For comparison purposes you can find a few pictures of antique ones here.

As said by others, modern and made as a decorator, or possibly to deceive. :(