Hi Gonzalo,
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Argentineans never used dies to handcraft their knives,....... The botones, pommels and handguards on the argentinean, uruguayan and brazilian criollo knives are always made in this way.
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Please refer to photos taken from Dagas De Plata pg 185 showing the forging of buttons with a mechanical hammer and die in Tandil, Argentina.
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I have never encountered this geometric hilts and this thin metal separators between the pieces of horn until mid 20th Century. I believe the use of this small metal discs, which appear as metal thin lines, is something that could be alien to the traditional decorative uses in Argentina,
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Wrong!
Please refer to DDP pg 73 cat 1131 for facon with wooden&horn handle and two thin separators; Large dagger pg78 cat 1142 with horn and bone handle and thin separators. Puņal Salteņo pg97 with four thin separators; Facon pg128 cat 1152 featuring numerous thin silver separators and horn disks; All of these are antiques.
The use of thin separators in handles by cutlers was almost a universal practice by the 19th century, be it for decoration or else to allow the use of material that was not of sufficient size to permit a one piece construction. The only restriction for this practice was the availability of sheet metal, in this case brass.
What truly distinguishes this handle is that it appears to be uniformly circular in its cross section, something that would suggest a lathe having been used to shape it - Though it is hard to say from the photo. A few measurements with a calliper would throw light on this. Perhaps Robert could help out.
Something else. How is the pommel disk attached? Riveted? Threaded? And was the pommel disk made from sheet or something else, like a slice from a bar, perhaps even a casting? An end on photo would be helpful.
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The making of this guard is much simpler than the use of a die.
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This guard could have been made in any number of ways. It is very hard to tell from the photos though an actual hands on examination would quickly settle this question. It appears to be of ferrous metal, and Robert could confirm this for us by testing it with a magnet. It also would be helpful to have an end on photo of it, where it meets the blade. The things to look for are the nature of the surface blemishes, file marks, if any, and details of the grooves at the ends of the quillons.
Cheers
Chris