Hunt knives for ID

[MacCathain]

I found these a few weeks ago in the UK and thought they were quite well-made and interesting. I presume they are a hunting set, perhaps made for butchering the kill with those deep blades, rather than what one might use to deliver the coup de grâce.

What I assume is a maker's mark can be found at the ricasso on the left side of the blades. It's really just a compass-like circle, featuring gaps at the cardinal points. I have yet to find a reference for this mark.

The knives nest in a common leather sheath, but are held separate in "mini-sheaths" of their own, ensuring the blades don't come in contact. The sheath is heavily tooled on its face and features a belt loop stitched to the back.

Although the blades are pleasingly decorated on the upper tang edges, and feature a few notches on the spines to give one's thumb purchase, my sense is that they are an honest hard-working pair that have seen a fair bit of use. Although it is hard to discern in my photos, there is slight darkening of the wooden grip scales at the flared ends, where blood/water/grease has been drawn up into the grain by capillary action. The blades also show evidence of staining. The blades are 17 cm and 13 cm long, and the overall lengths of the knives are 27 cm and 22 cm.

I wonder if the unique square-ended grip style with the semi-circular notches is characteristic on any particular nationality or culture. I think I've seen similar pieces before, but searches for other knives with the same treatments have delivered nothing.

As to time frame, I would guess early 20th century, but they could well be earlier.

I welcome any suggestions or comments.

[Hotspur]

21st century. Brand new. Leo Todeschini In stock plain ones at Tod Cutler.

Tod's Workshop is his upscale site for his commissions and these with the file work were probably from that site.

He does fabulous crossbows.

Based in Standlake,
Witney, Oxford, OX29 7SA, UK

[MacCathain]

Ha! That explains it: They're the grizzled veterans of many a hard-won meal at Renaissance Festivals!

Thanks for the ID, Hotspur.

[kronckew]

Tod's Workshop has a number of high class sharp pointy things, swords, daggers, axes, spears, arrowsmaces, etc. made traditionally, including scabbards, belts, etc. He also dabbles in thrown weapons, playing with them in his yoo toobe videos. he lately is spending a lot of time fine tuning his trebuchet. It has links to his website stuff.