Dahomey cutlass ?

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Tim Simmons

Golly what a splendid thing. That is rust not a brass blade? I love it. Look how similar this blade is.

Very nice piece Tim, and interesting comparison. It appears to be one of the Dahomean hwi type weapons, is it?

I think the identifications between certain African weapons and Tibetan or Asian from those regions seem to conflict at times, and I once experienced another instance where a short sword identified as Tibetan turned out to be a Dahomean hwi. I think the main thing is that this example seems to reflect certain types of ram dao, and the use of rayskin on the hilt seems atypical for African weapons, wheras more likely in Asian.
The splayed fishtail seems very familiar to me also, and cannot yet place it, but have not found anything to correspond in the reference by Palau Marti ("Sabres Decores du Dahomey ", Objets et Mondes, 1967). It is tempting of course to associate this feature on koras of Nepal and Bengali regions.

The decorative motif does seem African though, so looking forward to more views on this.

Best regards,
Jim