Antique Sardinian knives and daggers

[ausjulius]

those leppa can be like little shashkas.
Sardinia is an interesting location for ethnographic weapons as cold weapons were still carried quite late and there is a number of distinct styles of weapons that were used by the locals .

[corrado26]

I can't help but for me numbers 2, 3 and 4 are looking like kitchen knifes

[ausjulius]

Originally Posted by corrado26

I can't help but for me numbers 2, 3 and 4 are looking like kitchen knifes

they are not kitchen knives but knives worn on Sardinians belts.

[corrado26]

I did not say that these ARE kitchen knifes, I said that they look like kitchen knifes.

[Pitt1999]

Originally Posted by corrado26

I can't help but for me numbers 2, 3 and 4 are looking like kitchen knifes

That is a problem with collecting Sardinian edged weapons. Sardinian swords (leppa de chintu, abbreviated to LDC for convenience) tend to look pretty distinct if it is a higher quality example, well engraved brass plates on the hilt with the scabbard usually of matching quality. The lower quality examples carried by shepherds and the like are more difficult to identify because they lack the elements that make the high quality examples easily identifiable. The more simple examples are horn or wood hilted like mine rather than having the finely decorated metal hilt plates present in the high quality blades. The blades also differ, but don't seem to change often between high and low status examples. The sword length weapons, LDC, can often be found with recycled sword blades which I read in one article came from Spanish swords. But there were (and still are) also high quality blades forged in Sardinia. The knives carried by common men were more than likely made using recycled steel or worn out tools. I have seen at least one example that appeared to be made out of a file or rasp.

[Pitt1999]

Adding some recent additions to my collection of Sardinian edged weapons. The three swords I do not yet have in my possession, the knife I received recently but haven't gotten around to photographing it yet so these are the sellers' photos.

[Pitt1999]

I received the three swords the other day. They all appear to use recycled sabre blades, one of which still has some very faded engraving which looks similar to the engraving found on some Spanish sabre blades. Two of these swords look to have utilized the tip section of the recycled blade while the other swords looks to have used the middle section of the recycled blade.

The blades (in my opinion) appear to me to be from three different countries. The three fullered blade looks like the type of blade you see coming from the various companies in Solingen. The blade with the montmorency fuller reminds me of the type of blade found on French m1822 sabres. As previously stated, the last sword appears to use a section of a Spanish sabre blade. I made an attempt to photograph the engraving, but the combination of a lack of a good photography setup and the condition of the engraving made for a poor outcome.

If there were embellishments of any kind on the hilts of these swords, there aren't any present on two of the three swords. One of the swords has two five pointed stars along with four of the ever popular the world over "dot in circle" decorations.

None of them are in particularly good condition. They all exhibit various degrees of corrosion in the blades, warps in the blades, damaged tips along with losses to the horn hilt scales.

While I am not certain if there are regional differences with the styles of hilts, two of these swords are possibly from the same region. Both of them display the same three pronged formation at the end of the hilt.

[Pitt1999]

More photos...