well, browsing e-bay found this
'Sgian dubh' in a 'buy it now'
seemed a reasonable price, so it's coming to live with me.
it seems a reasonable approximation of a small tibetan/bhutanese silver mounted knife (dossum?), which i've been on the lookout for for awhile now (lost a few auctions at considerably more moolah than i paid for this 'scottish' version.
) ( i know, it may even be a 'chinese' approximation)
wonder if the 'scots' used hairpin laminations, will see when it arrives...