Interesting African adaptation of British carving knife

[Iain]

Originally Posted by thinreadline

I assume it is Manding or thereabouts due to the leather style ?

Hi Richmond, the difficulty with a piece like this and a precise ethnic attribution is that I don't think it's massively old, certainly 20th century. Certain styles are so endemic to the wider Sahel region for leather working that its often impossible to say with any degree of certainty who made what, or at the very least way out of my skill level!

That massive caveat out of the way... I think this was certainly made in an area with Manding influence, that's based on the handle wrap geometric patterns. The scabbard is not typical Manding in that sharply raised bands of leather are not present except at the top and those are pretty muted. The lower 3/4s reminds me more of a Hausa or Fulani scabbard. So a real mix.

Interestingly this doesn't seem to have been adapted to a usual arm dagger but a belt dagger?

Cheers,

Iain