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Old 7th January 2017, 12:29 AM   #1
motan
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Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: Jerusalem
Posts: 274
Default Sharing a Majdali and a Kukri Question

Hello all,
I am collector of daggers from the Levant. I was looking for a good quality Majdali dagger (from the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Golan). I already had 3, but none is of the best quality. With a tight budget, I was lucky to find a very nice one for a reasonable price. It is of the rounded grip-fullered blade type- a type that appeared later than the flat grip-heavy, inscribed blade type, so probably not older than 1920, but it is still a nice example with Ottoman/Syrian type scabbard and it is relatively well preserved, despite being carried and used. It is signed "'Amal Iskandar" (made by Iskandar), probably the work of a Christian maker. I have seen about 10 others of this maker, 3 of which were signed. One of them was discussed on the forum: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...=Syrian+dagger . They are all of good quality and have a well forged and sharp blade.

In the same lot, I got a Kukri. It is reasonably well made, but basic piece and probably not very old. The blade is very heavy and has concave sides. A similar example has been discussed in a recent thread (http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=22204), but opinions varied greatly. The grip is made of horn, not wood. So, is this a military issue? Has it been made in India or in Nepal (it is probably not British because it has no rivets)? How old/young is it? It falls outside my area, so I know very little about Kukris. I gave it to my youngest of 15 as his first piece, but I would still like to know what it is.
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