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Originally Posted by Chris Evans
Hi Rafael,
Nice to receive your input.
1. Re Valero Jun: Do you know for certain that that was his family name? It sound plausible.
Valero is quite common. Jun a lot less but exist also. In Spain everyone carry TWO differents family names. One from the father the other from the mother, so Valero Jun is more than possible especialy in the region of Aragon (Zaragoza is the regional capital city of Aragon).
2. Re Carraca (Ratchet): I tend to agree with you that it was probably a safety feature, for the other commonly made explanation, namely that the ratchet was supposed to frighten the opponent makes little sense. Now if safety was the prime concern, why did so many have up to 15 teeth? I can see the first two or three contributing to safety, but the rest?
The 15 teeth is far from the really common 3-8 theeth. The 7 theeth are, even today, like a urban legend as sinonimous of big, "terrible" navaja. Populars makers as JJ Marínez still making almost all his production of Navajas con Carraca with the same number of teeth for any size, 5 teeth.
The soun is impresive, that for sure. And is possible that some people add more teeth for this reason, but I don´t think that this is the main or original reason in any case.
However, a well known Spanish antiquarian offered the alternative explanation that it was a legal requirement is some jurisdictions, though he couldn't prove it. A friend consulted with Don Forton who opined that it was primarily aimed at frightening the opponent. So we have three different opinions. I noticed that in his works Forton does not address this subject. We can all make guesses, but it would be nice to know for sure.
Just the opposite. In the history of legal idiocy that usually is the "any time" anti-knives laws we can find two kind of "prohibiciones" from the XVII to XIX century. First at all after banning the use of sword from the common people the rulers understood that a big Navaja with a good lock system was even more dangerous (you can "easyly" conceal a Navaja). So first point to make "out of law", ANY lock system that could keep in place the blade.
Later, they consider that the problem was the very sharp (?) tip. So ALL the navajas has in these times his tip broken apart, like a razor or a sailor folding knife. So thinking about some mandatory ratchet is not very logical. Apart the point thast is quite easy ti open without any noise one of this navajas.
3. Re the Virola (Bolster): What you say makes good sense. It distributes the load imposed by the riveted pivot pin on the handle material. But the design of the bolster influences the strenghth of the handle assembly and this is something that needs elaboration in a work such as that of Forton's.
I agree to some point. I have navajas without bolsters, pastoras for example, made for popular consume that keep in place quite well for the every day task but I think it add some "without eyes" control of the knife if you can feel wher you have your hand in every moment. Do you understand what I mean ? (Sorry but my english has its limits to explain better)
4. Re Size: Once a blade exceeds about 23cm, the handle becomes very weak or else too heavy and thus impractical. Plenty of large `navajas de muestra' (show/exhibition pieces) but I have yet to see one that saw use as indicated by wear and tear. You are right, those with large heavy blades can be flung open very quickly, but despite this remain impractical because of the weakness and weight problems. According to Forton, the average navaja blade was in the 15-23cm range, if I remember correctly, and that is consistent with something that could be put to practical use. With a bridged Virola (bolster) its is possible to make a navaja with a longer blade, say up to around 30cm, but it will be marginal on account of its weight and bulk of the handle.
Still today people like the local gipsys still carriying Navajas on the 26cm or more if they can find it. Even if the law put the limit on 11 cm.
And, you can trust me, they don´t consider the weigth a problem. Actually they are not so heavy as the people think. But the length of teh blade are in very high apreciation for these people.
Also the typical Spanish `Window" lock (Cierro de Ventana) is prone to rapidly develop slack and this free play is greatly accentuated by longer blades.
I´ve had some populars model from the XVII/XIX century with this problem and take just a few minutes for a master smith to put again in use these knives with NO ONE NEW PIECE on it, just the original pieces. I assume that something like this was very common in old days, when almost all the people was carriying some kind of these knives.
5. I think that one of the biggest problems we have trying to understand old navajas and their usage is that the surviving specimens were for most part show pieces or souvenirs and those that saw actual use were worn out and destroyed a long time ago. The people who used them were illiterate and thus we have no written records.
I fully agree in this point, Chris.
Cheers
Chris
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