Jambiya ...as old as it looked ?
 

This jambiya has just finished on eBay, looked to be a good early one, with interesting hilt. I was going to bid but have had my 'fingers burned' before.....so I was a little more cautious. The blade looked one piece but several e-mails later, I asked them whether the blade sounded hollow.....the honest reply was that it indeed sounded hollow :eek:

The overall impression of the knife/scabbard was that it was old but with the 'sheet metal' blade it could only be mid 20th C onwards....or am I mistaken. If I am right...the buyer paid well over the odds.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWA:IT&ih=005

Please comments and information will be gratefully received, thank you

Regards David

Hi David,
Bizarre hilt :confused: .
Experts will probably tell you this is indeed a XX century souvenir.
I guess the important thing is you didn't buy it :) .
Fernando

Hi Fernando :) ,
....at that price :eek: I had additional photographs sent to me by the seller. I think the hilt may be incomplete... the pommel end seems to have the remains of an additional piece or decoration.

Regards David

Now, that makes sense.

BTW, Remember mine? It cost some more ... but no knock off for sure.
All silver (not sterling, though :shrug: ).
May i?

Hi
based on my search to identify mine,
according with the general shape, could come from
Seyun (Sayun - سيئون) Hadramaout

the dealer did not lie you :D
he said " Vintage (Pre-1970) "
let us say then 1960 :p as well as this one
or may be 1950 ...

à +

Dom

I was thinking that the knife itself is Arab and the scabbard was North African, mated to each other later.

nothing to see with a whatever North-African production
the knife and the scabbard are arab, and more precisely Yemeni :p

à +

Dom

This type of hilt is from the eastern part of the country in what was part of the Aden protectorate, along the coast, near Oman. The sheetmetal blades should not be totaly disregarded as tourist pieces, just budget jambiyas for the common south arabian. Your average Yemeni could barely afford a bit of food until the 1970's, yet they all sported a jambiya.