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Old 8th May 2005, 12:05 AM   #2
tom hyle
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Houston, TX, USA
Posts: 1,254
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That would sure be my guess; European 19th or early 20th. Kind of thing they used to call a bowie or dirk in N America. I wonder what the handle is made of? The iron guard with other brass dress is a bit unusual, but it is seen, where the guard is iron, and the other dress is with a softer metal. Possibly Slavic? Would Slavs use a flat belt clip like that? Condition is spectaculon, and it could be newer, but in the modern world, these are the kind of thing that often spend decades inside drawers, linen chests, or gun cabinets, and one sees 19 European daggers in really good shape fairly frequently. The overlapped rather than rabbetted union of ferules with handle seems more Eastern European to me, but I'm not 100% about that. To some it may seem a lesser craftsmanship, but one does see it on some old stuff, and it's actually the stronger way, with no sharp rabetted shoulder for cracks to start in, and with conical sockets and ferules, they can be tightened by further insertion if they become loose; rambling.....It's great for spears and chisels.
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