Hi Martin,
Great, I love this kind of things.
Local artisans often used whatever they found. In Israel/Palestine early plastics and bakelite were used extensively for hilt material, files were used to forge blades and plastic coated electricity wires as decorative inserts. In Australia and Oceania, bottle glass was used for small blades and arrowheads and there are numerous other examples.
Your piece is unique in that the shape of the original item is still visible.
Naturally, such pieces are not in the top of anyone's wish list, but I still like them because they show the other side of artisan's ability: creativity and opportunism as opposed to tradition.
Eytan
|