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Probably the best work on facas de ponta was written by a guy who died in March 2007, called Oswaldo Lamartine de Faria. The 59 pages work is called "APONTAMENTOS (notes) SOBRE (about) A FACA DE PONTA" and was written 1977. Despite the title, this work embraces the wide range of Brazilian knifes, specially those from the Northeast backcountry region (Sertão). Lamartine himself was a native of this region.
I will here try and post a sort of synopsis, humbly translated from his work.

It seems as the faca de ponta, a typical cangaceiro (bandit) weapon, had/has its more common type with limited dimensions, belonging to the multiuse range, that can be carried both in the waist belt or in the boot.
In the city streets they were used hanging from the belt, less often in the garter and even in the vest armpit. Priests used them under the cassock.
Those with more wealth would order them from famed workshops, made with old National Guard sword blades with 2-3 cms. width and 20-30 cms length, with grips in ivory (or bone) and gold (or silver).

The typology and nomenclature is vast: Punals (facas de ponta with blunt edges); Peixeiras; knives with estoc type three edged blades (linguas de peba); lambedeiras (extremely sharp specimens with three fingers width and 30-40 cms length.); and several others.

Naturally facas de ponta and their counterparts had their criminal side, when used with harmful intents.
Parnahybas (or Pernambucanas) were a type of faca de ponta with a thin sheet blade and exaggerated long length, also known as Facas de arrasto (dragging knives), an allegory to the time it takes to drag them off the scabbards. This is the type of knives which can be related to those used by guys like Lampião. Observing pictures taken to him and his gang, one can see the proportion of such weapons, where those used by his men had similar dimensions to that of his own.
Quoting the various authors: A punal with a 70 cms blade and 11 cms. grip (Lima de Oliveira – Lampião, cangaço e nordeste ); A steel sheet knife with 77 cms with nickel third (?) grip, adorned with three gold rings (Eduardo Barbosa – Lampião – Rei do cangaço); … Appearing the punal or knife grip with white brass sheath and measuring 50 to 70 cms of sharp blade … I saw a three edged punal, in pure steel, fine point, which only purpose was to kill and bleed those beasts (Joaquim Gois – Lampião – o ultimo cangaceiro); Childerico (…) caught his tape and measured. He was astonished with the result: seventy to eighty cms. blade of fine steel, from an old sword of the National Guard. Used to torture and bleed prisoners (Raul Raul Fernandes – A marcha de Lampião; assalto a Mossoró).

Lamartine also mentions Marchantes (professional killers) leaving their knives introduced in Cururu frogs (Bufus Marinus) for a couple days, to achieve a poisonous effect; and others that filed scoops on their Peixeiras for easier disemboweling.
Also worthy of note were knives which had rather tight scabbards, allowing them to be used upside down, hanging from their backs; the intention was to illude the adversary, by drawing the knife in an unexpectedly inverted move.

The resource for knife steel was vast: rails, wagon shafts, tools, car springs, sword points …
Materials for grips were Galalithe, ivory (from old billiard balls) horn, bone …

Attached are some of the book illustrations, comprehending specimens owned by personalities of the period and some technical diagrams.

There is no problem with royalty issues, as Lamartine himself had disposed of the work to be published at the Internet. I believe only 1000 copies were printed and were sold out long time ago.



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