Shula S'boula/Jiboula
 

Hi All,

I know that it sounds like the beginning of a verse from Shirley Ellis' name game song but I was wondering how forum members would classify this knife. The hilt is clearly an s’boula/jiboula form but the blade and sheath are just as clearly shula. I’ll come right out with my opinion that it should be considered an s’boula/jiboula because the hilt was placed on the blade by a person of the s’boula/jiboula culture. But were the situation the other way around (shula hilt on an s’boula/jiboula blade), I’m not so sure I would want to call it a shula. What do you guys think?

Sincerely,
RobT

When it comes to ethnographic arms, we tend to classify swords and daggers by their hilt. For example, the same blade can be a takouba, a kaskara or even a firangi, depending on the hilt.

Based on this then, this would be a sboula.

TVV, you raise an interesting point. I would agree with you that many cultures do look at the "dress" of a sword or knife to ascertain which group's name is used to describe it. However, I don't think this applies to all ethnographic arms. Keris owners within the Indonesian culture, for example, have a detailed classification system based on the dhapur of the blade (regardless of dress).