Balkan knife
 

This knife found it's way into my collection recently. There don't seem to be enough definitive characteristics to attribute it to one particular area, so it will simply be a Balkan knife or Ottoman influenced knife for now. The seller I purchased it from is from Bulgaria, but this knife doesn't resemble any of my Bulgarian knives. The only book I have on Balkan arms is The Arms of Greece and Her Balkan Neighbors in the Ottoman Period, so I'll probably go pore over that and see if I've missed anything.

Could be Greek.

I am really not an expert but I've seen similar knives seen as described Cretan.
But I am sure that we have members who can tell you more and better! ;)

Regards,
Detlef

The thought that this was from Crete did pop up in my head. I'm used to seeing the touristy Cretan knives that have the engravings on the blade, this knife is so plain that I thought that it must be something else. The scabbard not being present also takes away from the ease of identification.

Is there missing one brass bolster?

The touristy 'souvenir' engraving on other Cretan knives just indicates they're fairly new.

same thought crossed my mind...

I have a set of three:

one small yataghan with scabbard looking similar, lenght about 76 cm
one bichaq of approx. 39 cm
one small bichaq or rather kama of 29 cm looking very similar

Mine are definitly Balkan, actually mainland ( Bosnia or more southern towards what is now called Turkey).
Gripp made out of horn ( similar like the black crnoscapi yataghan)
It is often found as a simpler design or less fancy for the ones with a little purse or country side.

The Crete ones I have seen ( and I am not a specialist on them at all) have a grip or hilt all made of bone or white horn.
The "black" mainland Balkan are either wooden or made out of dark horn.
Don't think you'll find any literaturen on these ones. At least I have not found it, neither in Englsih, German nor local sources Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Montenegrin publications.
Even the "fancy" one I have you hardly find anything written about unfortunately...


This one could be the same but as said...the simple version of these were mostly local made and hard to tell sometimes its real origin...

Please bear with me as I shall have to "dig" mine up from somewhere and put some pics here for comparison...

Such little utility knives are so hard to identify because they are not as popular for collecting as, say yataghans, and therefore are not studied as extensively. On top of that, simpler smaller knife forms were probably used over a large area of the Ottoman Empire. This one is not marked in any way that could provide some clue. It could have been made in Gabrovo, or it could have been made in a variety of other places in the Balkans or Asia Minor.

There is actually a book on Bulgarian shepherd's knives, but it is focused on shepherd's knives and not on other smaller knives and cutlery.

Attachment 228140

But they can be very nice! ;)

That one photo makes it look that way. It actually doesn't have either of it's bolsters remaining. I would rather have no bolsters than just one. Ideally both bolsters would still be attached but only having one would make it look odd.