Faca de ponte or just a souvenir of Brazil??

[David R]

Another bought online dagger or knife. I much prefer to buy of a table at a fair or market, but circumstances and boredom have driven me to go online, with mixed results!
The pictures were attractive, and the price reasonable with free shipping, so as we say here, "I took a punt", and the pictures did not lie, described as a European Hunting knife, it is in fact the size of one of those gamblers or "ladies" daggers. Comments and opinions welcome.

[David R]

The etched blade.

[kronckew]

shares similarities with my guardless FDP, an advertising give-away from a brazilian tobacco company, PILOTO.

[Fernando K]

Hello
It is a souvenir from Brazil. The blade is stainless, acid etched. As soon as it is sharpened, the blade loses part of the drawing. It is my humble opinion
affectionately

[Gonzoadler]

Hello,

for me, your dagger is simply an old decorative Solingen made dagger. The handle might be looking brazilian and of course it is possible that it was made for the export to Brazil, but such daggers are also relatively common in Germany. I have a similar, but possibly younger one with a naval etching and the inscription "Solingen Rostfrei" on the blade (rostfrei = stainless).

Regards
Robin

[Sajen]

Yes, it is like Robin explained.

[Helleri]

Originally Posted by Gonzoadler

Hello,

for me, your dagger is simply an old decorative Solingen made dagger. The handle might be looking brazilian and of course it is possible that it was made for the export to Brazil, but such daggers are also relatively common in Germany. I have a similar, but possibly younger one with a naval etching and the inscription "Solingen Rostfrei" on the blade (rostfrei = stainless).

Regards
Robin

A little hardware FYI to go with this. Snap Fasteners were invented in 1885. However they didn't really enter into mass production or popularity until the patent was purchased by the Prym family 1903 (Longstanding brass manufacturing German family that to this day makes the majority world supply of these. They literally make millions of these a day).

The first runs and later improved design was made of holey brass and copper components and were stitch on. Rivet-on became popular around WWI and one can even see a lot of ruck gear transitioning from clips and buckles to these. However these were initially folding staple rivets. It wasn't until WWII that we see press riveting in snap fasteners. This is also when we start to see nickle plated steel and painted steel versions (A lot of copper based alloys went towards the war effort and many things once made of brass, bronze and copper needed to find replacement material and more efficient manufacturing). We even see that a lot of the WWII ruck gear uses press rivet brass snap fasteners. However contemporary civilian market clothing and apparel is using steel.

So really any steel, press riveted, snap fastener is going to be post WWII. While you'll still see non-military brass today along side steel. And while sew on and even staple on is still made. If you see a press riveted steel snap fastener. You can pretty much guarantee that hardware is no older than say the 1950's.

This of course doesn't necessarily mean anything for a piece that accompanies such hardware. As additional securement can be newly added to old accessories and apparel at any time. However I will say that as a leather worker of 20 years...That leather looks to be bonded with a embossed grain polyurethane top coat. Or in other words "genuine leather". Which is, at least to a leather worker, bottom of the barrel cheap stuff used for mass production. That embossed top coat tends to last (with good care or dark, cool, dry storage) about 8-10 years until it starts flaking.

That is to say the (and I can't air quote this enough) "Leather" used here looks to be very new. Now I could be wrong about the leather. It could be a split leather buff grain of a lower end quality (which is functionally the same thing). But it and the hardware does look very new.

This all just evaluation of the material used for the sheath. I'd be surprised if that sheath was overall any older than 20 years.