Unusual dagger ?Philippines ?N. Africa

[Tim Simmons]

The etching is a repeat of the image. Which is a distortion of Aribic acording to the auther of {Nigerian Panoply arms and armour of the Northern Region A.D.H Bivar, Department of Antiquities Fedral Republic of Nigeria 1964}

[Ian]

Thanks Tim. It seems that I have all the images upside down. I'll try to restore them to their correct orientation.

The reoriented images for my knife seem to be a fairly close approximation to the inscription that Tim has shown. Those on the kaskara are not as close.

[Tim Simmons]

For comparison.

[G. Mansfield]

Looks like Sudanese knife from the Mahdist period or shortly thereafter. Attached below is another example from African Arms with the same bayonet blade type and form. My guess origin of a Khartoum workshop to near the 3rd cataract of the Nile in Northern Sudan near Dongola. I will attach a Dongola style curved dagger that I received recently. Take particular note in the similarity of the segments of bone and horn hilt with metal alloy spacers paired with the brass pommel. The shape of yours reminds me of some British naval dirks. The Nile was used by the British for logistics of troops and ammo during the Mahdist War departing from Egypt, eventually making their way to secure the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. Ian, a great knife in my opinion.

https://africanarms.com/gallery.html...ger-in-3-views
https://www.the-mansfield-collection...ola-dagger-488

-Geoffrey

[Ian]

Geoffrey, thank you for those helpful insights.