Somewhere I saw a Chinese daosi style knife illustrated that was made by Will & Finks of SF during the mid 19th c. I don't recall if the blade was a clipped point or a traditional point typically found on these knives.
I do remember that the pommel was the typical clipped-corner cube that is almost ubiquitous to daosi. My pommel's a strange form that I've never seen anywhere else.
I'm not in any way hinting that mine could have been made by W&F. Wherever it came from it appears to be the product of a small shop. Could it be, with its various anomalies, a knife that was made here in the US, from a memory of a daosi for a Chinese customer by American smith?
With the drastic language differences, a basic description verbalized to an American blacksmith may well have left the clip point and pommel up for interpretation.
When (and if!) I find the picture of the W&F knife, I will post it.
|