Quote:
|
Originally Posted by fernando
...although there is a significant date span between your best prognosis, pre-1920 and the worst 1950 of Inveterate, in terms relative to end 19th century and nowadays.
....
|
Hi Fernando
dating Kukri is a tricky thing, as not many written accounts nor research does exist today. So what researchers do is they look for pieces with a provenance and take a note of all their features and use those features to make conclusions on kukris that turn up.
This gives you the relatively long time spans we are struggeling with today.
A few thoughts on your kukri from my side. From my observations I think we can exclude end of the 19th cent. The wider bolster (those pre-1900 pieces can have very thin bolsters) and the pommel cap with the raised keeper seems to come up arround WW1.
Deep fullering seems to die out shortly after WW2 and can be found all the time before.
I your piece is defintely a "villager" kukri - not made as a military piece. Bone was extremely rare for fighting kukri and a better fitting between handle and bolster was required.
The reason why spiral is mentioning "souvenir" is that kukris with bone handles and quite well made blades, show up as "WW2 bring back". Of course they could be made earlier and these antiques bought by soldiers in that area, but the quite larger number of them suggests that a "market" existed for such pieces during that time.
That does not mean that those can be compared to todays souvenirs - soldiers know what to look at on a knife. Those were functional pieces and so is yours.
As an example please allow me to add two examples from my collcetion. No1 is as well a bone handled piece. Actually in a classical style (sirupate) and it
came in a traditional scabbard (even with the red buttons - not on picture).
The thin bolster would suggest some age but the "stamped in" decoration does not, nor the hastly made kauri.
A similar piece turned up that to the information of its owner was purched on an indian basar arround 1960.
So those features would suggest that my piece is either a left-over from said souvenirs or even later.
The 2nd one does not have much in common with yours - but I want to use it to create some comparison to yours. The fullering is quite deep which is a feature it shares with your piece.
The bolster is even wider, the
kauri smaller but made with more detail than the one on my bone handled.
It is made from sheer steel which was stopped being produced after WW2. In the pouch of its sheath coins from WW2 were found. Of course it could have been in use long before WW2 and the coins left by its latest user - but the small kauri and the wide bolster don't suggest so.
These features make this one a mid 1930s to WW2 piece.
Applying a comparison of these features discussed with yours lead me to:
1920 - WW2. Looking at kauri and grip design a pre 1920 seems very unlikely to me.
A post 1945 manufacture can't be excluded ... but looking at bolster and fullering the chance that it was made before or during WW2 seems bigger to me than post WW2.
I'm sorry but that is the "most accurate" age guess I can come up with.
Looking at the scabbard - I'd like to 2nd Spirals question if that is the original one. And even if it fits, we can't exclude that it got a new scabbard.
So focusing on the blade this is the best I can come up with.
Hope that was of some help
Andreas