A Very Dressy Siraui
 

Here is an unusually dressy siraui. I have always thought of these as a working man's(or woman's) utility type knife, but this one and others I have seen here are making me think again. This one has a bird head hilt with a lovely and elaborate silver bound scabbard, complete with a large rosette and silver chains(one damaged). The chape is bone and is solid as it is purely decoration and the blade doesn't go down that far in the scabbard.

A real "eye catching" siraui.

Dimensions:

Overall length: 13.5in.
Blade length: 6.25in.
Blade width: just over 3/4in. at the forte
Blade thickness: 1/4in at the forte

Hello Charles,

a real beauty, I am green with envy! :D There seems to be some very beautiful examples of this knives out there. But still think that this knives wrong labeled as siraui. Here is another nice one: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ghlight=siraui ;) Hope that we will be able to solve this mystery about this knives one day in the future.

Regards,
Detlef

I think you very well may be right that these are something other than "siraui".

Van Zonneveld is very specific in his description of these, including the blades being fullered, which many, including this one, are not. Neither is the scabbard much of a match to his description.

I wonder if "siraui" refers to the reversed edge of the blade only....and the fittings do not matter???

What a great piece! Any close ups of the front of the wranga?

Yes, a most wonderful piece. I hope that you do not mind that I have taken the liberty to brighten one of your photos to help show some of the detailing of the hilt. As Jose has suggested please post close-ups showing more of the detailing of this stunning piece.

Best,
Robert

Snap. One of the first ever pieces I bought about 30 years ago, I bought it off Evan Perry who had then decided to take a break from weapons and start collecting corkscrews... In slightly worse condition than the glitzed up version above, it obviously also had the chain originally as there is a stub left where the loop would have been.

Probably made by the same craftsman Stefan....they are very similar.

Have you ever heard another another name associated with these in your years as a collector and dealer?

No idea I'm afraid. I have always been cautious labelling things with native names too much, although it is part of the game of collecting for some. This has been languishing in a box for many years, I though the shape so wacky and there aren't many of them around.