Indian Dagger
 

Here's a dagger I had the pleasure of holding a little while back. The owner has given permission to show some pics in order to try to learn some more about it here.

The smaller of the two knives fits in the larger one like a glove. And it is almost unbelievable how precisely the little "spring"-latch-mechanism on the handle was crafted.
The hilt on the larger dagger is ivory and the smaller, bone.
There is a date(?) on the spine which I was told was 1898 (I think). Don't know if that is a western or Hindu date.

Hope you enjoy,
Shawn

A better shot of the spine...

Hi Shawn,

This is a very nice dagger, and these daggers are not often seen. I have seen one, and only one, which had six or seven dagger within each other. Imagine the work to make such daggers, only the top best smiths were able to do it, and when you to this add the tools they had ad the time, then it is almost unbelievable that they could do it.

Thank you very much for showing:).

How about a close up of the date, as that can be a bit tricky acording to if it is Vikrama samvat or the calender we use - the difference is 56/57 years:p.

Wow! What a fascinating piece!

Spiral

Beautiful pieces, thank you for sharing - never seen the compartment made of ivory before.

Jens, I've tried to re-crop and add some contrast to the image. Unfortunately, this is the best shot I have.

The other point of interest to me was row of ball-bearings up the spine. I had never seen this before. Is the purpose decoration? Or, I thought they might help add "heft" to a slash...

Hi Shawn,

It is really a very nice dagger you have. That the bigger dagger is scabbard for the smaller one takes, as said before, a very skilled craftsman. The very nice blade, the gold work and ‘the tears of the wounded/the tears of the inflicted’ is something you see, but not very often. Usually the bearings roll in the blade, which in this case is impossible, but to make them roll at the back of the blade, is unusual and only shows the skill of the craftsman. I can’t, unfortunately, not read the year, so I can’t help you with this, maybe others can.

If you choose the sticky named Classic threads, and choose Sliding weights, you can read more about the subject, and why you are at it, there may be other threads in Classic threads, which may be of interest to you.

Jens