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Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi
Salaams Spiral... Sorry did I say bone? Oh ya...I meant hoof...By the way I hold the world record for falling off camels! I used to own 8 of them... great animals!! ...I can't believe anyone would want to cut their feet off as hilts...It is said that a Sheikh in the Bedouin...when he dies is wrapped in the skin of his favourite camel...ah well...
I have read your informative post a while ago on Rhino ( Pachyderm mag...) most interesting.
Your other article above is fascinating and I'm about finished that...what an eye opener! It remarks on the Giraffe word (Z'raff) which I am pretty sure is the same in Yemen as it is here... and means Rhino. It also mentions the orange coloured plastic hilts...What it doesn't seem to go into is the carbon hilts which these days are excellent quality and sometimes called Amerikky..(imports from USA) They take all the silver pins without splitting and are the right weight and colour.
The article goes on to describe stone (agate etc) which we also have but they are useless because they are way too heavy and when they hit the floor they shatter! and probably worse... they are non traditional.
So apologies for mentioning bone instead of hoof..but anyway..so we are talking about horn or hoof though I think it expands to encompass all the variables..making the thread somewhat deeper and I think jolly interesting 
I just wish people here would accept Siberian Mamoths Tusk. 
Richard G. ~ I have to say I have never seen a camel hoof hilt on any dagger Yemeni or Omani... It could be that they simply look bovine and get lumped into that category of cheap hilt... I have a couple of cheap Jambias on my desk and I am looking at those but they look like bull or cow. Your white bone hilt could be camel or something marine ...
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi. |
Namaste Ibrahiim, Well I also make many errors in grammar & spelling & its my first language, also my brain runs much faster than my typing as well...leading to other errors
Glad you enjoyed the links...From what Ive seen Hoof material looks more like rhino than buffalo/cow/goat.
I think when you get a jambiya, where some knowledgeable say rhino & some knowledgeable say not, then its quite often hoof...
Interesting to see the orange plastic described as the crap it is, when weve all seen so many sold as exotic amber or some rare horn for ridiculous sums in the west for many years!
Realistically there should already be enough good hilts to go around in the country's of traditional use & veneration, Yemen, Oman etc but know they also get bought & scrapped for some countries eastern medicines/ hangover/trendy gifts increasing the value, which also makes them even then sought after by more western collectors, as exotic & rare & combines to make the whole situation unviable & then increases the poaching of rhino & then the theft of collectors & museums pieces in the west.
Which all goes to get lobby's to act & governments to then pass laws that may result in once legitimate collections & collectors being placed at risk of confiscation & criminalisation. {Like the currant American ivory scenario.]
Its a spinning wheel running down a hill, with no brakes.
I have no solution , just noticing the vicious recurring circle, & how all the factors play together.
My Regards,
Spiral