[Atlantia]

Originally Posted by Chris Evans

Gav,

Sadly no. I do not speak Portuguese and because of thus I know little of their knife lore, save a bit that pertains to the southern parts of that wonderful country, where their blade culture resembles that of Uruguay and Argentina.

Gene,

The Argentineans also had such very long facons, invariably made from a discarded sword blade and were known as saddle facons as they were carried pinned under the gaucho's saddle. They fell into disuse and in all probability were originally used as slaughtering tools of wild cattle, though no doubt they also did double duty as weapons, when required. They were considered too cumbersome to be carried in the traditional way, though many gauchos tucked 60cm blades into their belts at the small of the back.

Cheers
Chris

Thanks Chris,
As a collector of the gaucho field, do you see many of these giant Brazilian ones?