A curious north african knife
 

Good morning everyone,

one of my recent find is this curious knife... so curious, the scabbard looks to be close than a flissa scabbard, the general shape of this knife makes me thinks about a flissa but I've never seen a "so poorly" decorated flissa !?!

Could be the oldset flissa ever seen ??? :D

I just took two picts of it cause there's nothing more to see but if more picts are needed just say it to me ;)

Thank's by advance for your help,
Clement

Ps: this blade was "cleaned" with a tools like a dremel and it had left so many scratches, how can I improve this ?

Hello,

nobody got an idea about this knife :)

Thank's,
Clement

Be patient Clement!
it's a kind of Bou Saada or khodmi.
You will find plenty on this forum.
Of course Algeria

;)
Kubur

Hello Kubur,

I just see that I forget to post the size of this knife :shrug: it size 13 25⁄32in so longer than the majority of bou saadi ?

The knife fit perfectly the scabbard so I think it more close to a flissa than a bou saadi (with a leather covered wood scabbard).

The steel using or the blade is also different from this one used for the bou saadi and flissa, looks really different but it could be just a misconception of my mind !

I've seen the post on the forum speaking about forge marking, and don't have seen this one. And I'm note able to identify what it represent/symbolize. Is it a trident a crown or something else :confused:

Have a look here: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=25268

Hi mates, and particularly Detlef, how are you my friend ? Sorry for those silent times, life was... eventful :D

Well, yep, genuine bousaadi knife, "khodmi" (knife) from Bousaada (algeria). This one is the classic one, not the bigger ones displayed by detlef (that I call now "mouss sahraoui", or "khodmi sahraoui", also from bousaada craftsmanship, but that we find everywhere in south algeria, even in touaregs areas since the 18century, in my last searches).
So yours, is not the longers ones, that are also called "couteau à lame triangulaire" by Eric CLAUDE due to their shape. Yours has the typical shape of a bousaadi, but look to have lost its wiring...
I cant see as well, but in this case, it is only attached with just one metal pin, so without the wire, the tang can moove, and so the blade too. However, you have here a nice and old model, reputed in algeria for their cutting qualities for centuries.

Please dont ask me about those marks, as Ive said in another post, just let me finish my book about algerian weapons first :D:D:D (it took me more thant 10pages to just try to search a meaning about some marks that are today mostly losts... but to make very quick and simple, what YOU have here, is PROBABLY the local interpretation/copy, between a lot, of some europeans marks you can find on some german or italian swords of the 15/16century, as a proof of quality of those knives... like "see, this knife is stamp like an italian sword"... So yeah, this one is probably from those ones, but you also have a lot of local marks, from a crafsman or family of crafstman, tribe, or refering to local believes and symbols).

Are the edges of this type of khodmi cold hammered (work hardened)?

They usually/traditionnally are yes, but not all of them (may be 80% I guess). I think that some craftsman dont want to damage some hardest steel (as files for ex) with such a risky method (that was iniitally used with soft/low carbon steel in algeria, herited from agricultural tools as a scythe). Cold hammering can cause cracks on those kind of steels if badly made.

(notice the triangular file used to make the upper one, the one without cold hammered cutting edge.

Hope you are fine my friend!? Nice to read again from you! :cool: