African knife from scrap iron ?
 

I recently found this small dagger. I believe it originates from southern Ethiopia (Kaffa, Arussi, southern Galla, etc...). I found a description of a knife, similar to mine, in Christopher Spring's African arms and armour (p 106).

The knife is nothing special. I even think it's not very old. It came with a leather scabbard. The crossbar and the knob of the handle are, in my opinion, made from aluminium. The handle itself is made of different 'rings' of leather put on top of each other.

When examining the blade, which is sharp all over, I found on one side two inscriptions. Both read : 'World pats pend' It als has a diamond shaped impression next to one of the inscriptions.
I guess the blade was made from some piece of scrap metal. A kind of 'recycled knife' ;)

Total length : 24 cm.
Length of blade : 14 cm
Width of blade : 3,5 cm

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1.../Unknown-2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...own-detail.jpg

Freddy

Almost all African knives, swords and spears in that last 100yrs were probably made in one form or another from recycled steel. Your dagger looks like a Somali bilao to me.


Lew

Can anyone show a 'bilao'. I have difficulty finding a picture on the net.

Hi Freddy, I think that Lew means bellawa-billao... :)