Mystery knife for comment and id
 

Hi all,

This little knife has presented quite the challenge, it seems familiar and yet I can't find a solid identification for it. The knife is about 21 cm (~8.3 inches), there is a sequence of what appears to be the initials "RD" incised on one side of the blade (pic 2) and the handle appears to be made of small blocks of horn separated by thin brass or aluminum(?) sheets except for a semi-transparent piece near the center of the handle (pic 3).

Any help would be appreciated.

- ADS

Hi ADS,

The middle part is some sort of horn. The knife looks Mongolian to my eyes but I am not sure about its exact origin. But it's an interesting knife.

Regards,
Detlef

The translucent piece of horn could be a piece of albino horn from a cow, water buffalo, or goat.

Looking at the scabbard I wonder is it is some form of Bou Saadi knife. The horn and brass/aluminium washer construction is common to north and north east African.

Is the scabbard made of leather only or does it have a wooden core?. If only leather, I would say east African

Thank you all for your responses! It seems like northern Africa or possibly Mongolia is the place of origin for this knife. The scabbard has a wood core covered in leather.

- ADS

The deeply struck characters on the blade look vaguely Chinese to me. I favor Detlef's interpretation that this is East/Central Asian. The leather covering a wood core for the scabbard might be horse leather. It reminds me of ass and onager leather on some NW Indian knives (not that I think that is the origin for this piece).

Thanks for your comment, I will look at other examples from those regions for comparison.

- ADS