Picked this up on eBay
 

It's a 17th century Turkish dagger...NOT!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Actually, it's a naval dress dirk, probably British, circa 1805-20, made in the Arabic styling of the period. After the Barbary Wars and the Egyptian Campaigns, naval items in the U.K. and America began to take on the so-called mameluke styling.

Here are a few more I found online-
www.robertfinan.co.uk/images30042005/101.jpg
www.robertfinan.co.uk/images30042005/105.jpg
www.robertfinan.co.uk/images30042005/107.jpg
www.robertfinan.co.uk/images30042005/106.jpg

Just thought I'd share it with the Forum as it is an unusual form and I stumbled on it quite by . Thanks-
Mark

Congrats Eley!

: )

Thanks, Manuel. Too bad it's missing the scabbard toe. Perhaps I'll find a replacement somewhere...

Still waiting for this little beauty's arrival. In the mean-time, any suggestions out there about how I might repair the sheath or even if I should? Perhaps a new brass toe piece or maybe the leather end of an old sheath? Does anyone have an old disgarded leather scabbard or brass piece they may wish to part with??

Interesting development on this liitle dirk. On the guard is a named etched faintly into it marked "Ohaoda". This threw me at first, but knowing that it came from an Irish estate, I did some research and turned up the Gaelic name AHaoda as the equivilent of "Hughes". Turns out that when i contacted the seller, that was his family name (he had never even seen the tracing as it is so faint. I had to use a magnifier to see it). Perhaps a little research might turn up something, but I'm guessing from the small hilt that he was a mid-shipman (who, in the Brit and Amer navies of the time, could be as young as 10!) probably during the 1810-30 period.

Somehow I overlooked this thread. This is an excellent little dirk, of uncommonly-seen grip style.
I saved the photos of it. At times I stumble upon an ebay thread that is rendered almost meaningless w/out photos.

Thank you so much, Dmitry, for saving these. I had saved the eBay auction, but the pics went down soon after. I was happy to have acquired this little dirk.