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Originally Posted by Martin Lubojacky
I would also say the blade is comming from the Sahel region. Enclosed please find Tuareg blade with slightly similar decoration, allegedly made in Agadez. Such big orange beads (imitating amber) like this used to be used for necklaces in Sahel
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Many thanks; the blade designs on the right-most example in that photo are quite similar. Adding Tuareg knives to the search list has gained me a few more examples.
I have found the beads you mention and they do look very, very similar. Do you know of any other examples where this material is used on a knife? The cultural association and physical evidence on the knife are enough that I believe I can be confident the large faux-amber bead is original, but I am curious if there are other examples known.
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I think Martin is spot on with regards to the bead, the enamel cap perhaps speaks of a Egyptian link?
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Egypt or trade from Egypt is possible for the enamel, but it seems a little odd to me. Egypt does have a long tradition of enamel work, but I can't find any usage on knives in modern Egypt. Excluding one ongoing Ebay sale for a knife that is simultaneously Egyptian, Arabic and Cossack, and I'm inclined to discount that as a source. To me the enamel looks Southeast Asian, but it's so badly damaged it's difficult to tell. And the only places I can find enamel used on knives with any regularity is Russia and the old Soviet-bloc Central Asian states.
To all:
I've found a couple old vikingsword thread with examples I can draw from, as well as those posted in this thread. One post of interest is at
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showpo...82&postcount=9
From the examples here and from searching Tuareg, Hausa, Manding and general Sahel knives I'm pretty confident in the blade. That alone is a massive improvement - I was looking through most of Asia before all of your help - but am still not really sure of the handle.
On the post linked above there is a set of knives (see attached photo, red circle) from further south. The left-most of these three has completely the wrong blade profile for the knife I am working on, but the profile of the handle (at least in a black and white line drawing) looks very similar. It is apparently from the book "Armes traditionnelles d'Afrique. {dagues,poignards,glaives,epees,tranchets et couperets} Approche regionale et classification technique, morphologique et esthetique. Tristan Arbousse Bastide."
Does anyone have a copy they don't mind looking at, or know what that knife is? Is there actually a style with a similar handle profile, or is that just because of the low detail of the drawing that it looks similar?
Also, does anyone have a guess on the date range? My instinct is late 19th century based purely on the level of wear and corrosion on the blade, but that's not exactly a reliable dating method. Failing a guess on this knife in particular, is there a date range typical for Sahel-region blades of this style?
I know I'm asking a lot of questions here but as a final request (for this post at least), does anyone have recommendations for books on North African knives or bladed weapons in general?
Thanks again for the help and the warm welcome!