Ethnographic Arms & Armour

well, the 'Bou Saddi' knife has arrived

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s...ian001_DCE.jpg

paper is a sheet of A4 for size ref. the scabbard is wood, dark brown leather covered, and fits partway up the grip.
there is a worn band of leather wrapped around the top UNDER the main leather cover and protruding thru a slot. it is sewn to a brass ring that has a small gap, the ends appear to have been clipped with wire cutters. there is a small keeper knot of leather braided just behind the ring. a band of 4 turns of iron wire is just above and below the bulge where the suspension band is. the leather is tooled indistinctly with vertical lines and possibly some horizontal ones. there is a slightly dinged brass chape with a decorative enscribed band of two fine lines,and the end 'button' of the chape is iron.

the grip is octagonal wood with a very nice patina with twisted brass wire inlaid along the 8 edges starting fronm the pommel end.
the forward part of the grip is decorated with brass and iron wire (not twisted) in altenating bands up to
and over the integral steel bolster which is also octagonal the wire wrap is a bit loose near the bloster.

there is a pin thru the grip that extends all the way thru & i assume secures the internal partial tang. there is a small amt. of movement of the grip in relation to the blade.the blade has a distinct narrow groove about a 1/4 in. from the edge on the inscribed side, where it would be on the other side shows a hamon-like line in the steel which leads me to believe it has an inserted edge of harder steel.

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s...ian004_DCE.jpg
the spine is criss-crossed and banded for a bit over an inch then chamferred on both sides to the tip.
the tip has an unusual feature on the spine. about a half inch before the end is a 2mm wide by 1mm groove filed across the spine, about another millimeter on the blade is clipped down to where the chamfer would have been. hard to see in photo, so have attached a sketch.

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s.../tipsketch.jpg

there is an inscription in arabic on one side:

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s...ian003_DCE.jpg

the initial letter appears to be a 'kaf' (K), the medial one (three dots diacritical above the connecting line) i am unsure and the final letter appears to be a 'yah' (Y) - the curved U shape wuith the associated two dots under it (K?Y), then followed by the two seperate curved lines with the dot medially above which i am unsure of, maybe a makers symbol? my arabic is poor and quite rusty....i'm sure we have someone out there who knows....