Knife with a Spanish Influence?

[RobT]

Ian,

A sun with a face and eight rays was on the flag of the Philippine resistance against the Spanish (and later the US). I count eight rays on the sun on the sheath (three on the top, three on the bottom, one fat one at 9 o’clock and another fat one [partially obscured] at 3 o’clock). The rays at 3 and 9 o’clock are short by necessity and I believe that they are fat to give them prominence. If the sheath was decorated during the Philippine resistance period, it is quite old and quite a find.
Regardless of area of origin, my point in my initial response was that the sheath is from the Philippines. That being said, I wouldn’t be too quick to discard the notion that the knife is also. As I said in my initial response, I don’t see anything about the knife itself (design, construction, materials) that would rule it out as having been made in the Philippines. It easily could have been made for a Filipino who wanted a Spanish style knife or it could have been made for a Spaniard living in the Philippines. An old leather sheath can shrink enough so that the blade it was made for no longer fits. Other plausible explanations: Somebody in the Philippines had a knife and and a sheath that fit together well enough (albeit backwards) for carry. Somebody in the Philippines had a knife for sale and paired it with a sheath to make it more marketable (as is done all the time by sellers in the US).

Sincerely,
RobT

[Lee]

Thank you gentlemen for your comments and insights. Though the knife and the sheath clearly did not start together, both show some age and neither shows evidence of meddling that I can discern aside from evidence of many rehonings.

Here attached are two additional views that I neglected to include in the original post.

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by RobT

Ian,

A sun with a face and eight rays was on the flag of the Philippine resistance against the Spanish (and later the US). I count eight rays on the sun on the sheath (three on the top, three on the bottom, one fat one at 9 o’clock and another fat one [partially obscured] at 3 o’clock). The rays at 3 and 9 o’clock are short by necessity and I believe that they are fat to give them prominence. If the sheath was decorated during the Philippine resistance period, it is quite old and quite a find.
Regardless of area of origin, my point in my initial response was that the sheath is from the Philippines. That being said, I wouldn’t be too quick to discard the notion that the knife is also. As I said in my initial response, I don’t see anything about the knife itself (design, construction, materials) that would rule it out as having been made in the Philippines. It easily could have been made for a Filipino who wanted a Spanish style knife or it could have been made for a Spaniard living in the Philippines. An old leather sheath can shrink enough so that the blade it was made for no longer fits. Other plausible explanations: Somebody in the Philippines had a knife and and a sheath that fit together well enough (albeit backwards) for carry. Somebody in the Philippines had a knife for sale and paired it with a sheath to make it more marketable (as is done all the time by sellers in the US).

Agree with you Rob. I also think that the leather scabbard is from Luzon, Philippines. And also what you stated about the sun symbol from the resistance time, I agree, it's a nice find. But I have problems allocating the knife to the Philippines but I won't rule it out on the other hand.

Regards,
Detlef