South or Middle American dagger for identification

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by Ian

A very unusual knife which, I think, has some mixed styles to it. Taking the blade on its own, it has both a notch and a bolster at forte, and a prominently curved blade with concave edge. Every Spanish colonial knife that I have seen with a noch like this has not had a guard on the hilt. Also, the presence of both a notch and a bolster suggest to me that this knife started out with a simple hilt and no guard. Also, the guard just does not seem to fit aesthetically with this blade.

Hi Ian,

Like usual very good observations! I agree complete with you that the spanish notch in conjunction with the little guard look weird and out of place.
I've added pictures from some Mexican Scorpion daggers I've found on the net, all examples seems to have a guard so it seems likely IMVHO that when the knife in question belong to this family of knives that the guard is original and the manufacturer has given this knife an unusual visual appearance.

Originally Posted by Ian

I believe the hilt was added later (is it silver?). The three-part hilt with stacked sections either end of a central plain section is consistent with Spanish work from several places, including Spain (although the stacked sections would be uncommon in this configuration). The (silver?) finial on the end of the hilt also reminds me of some Ilokano examples.


I think you have a Spanish colonial knife from the Americas that has been rehilted at some later time--where and when is hard to say.

The hilt is from (white)brass. You never can be sure if a hilt is original to a blade but I think that it is still the original hilt and that the combination guard/spanish notch let look the knife a little bit weird. Like said, a guard seems typical for this daggers!

Regards,
Detlef