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Originally Posted by Gonzalo G
Chris, thank you for your kind words. I agree with your statements about criollo knives. Tough it seems that the puñal criollo and the verijero, unornated, is still actually used by the country laboureers as a daily tool, but not the facones and dagas. Although I can´t be personally certain of this, those are references given by argentineans.
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You are absolutely right, and even 50yrs ago this was the case. However, if we substitute plain wooden or plastic handles for the ornate silver ones, we end up with common kitchen/butcher knives, perfectly suited to work on an cattle `estancia', albeit with a hint of a false edge and worn in a sheath. Save festive occasions, during my travels, I never saw a `campesino' (man of the land) would be gaucho with anything other than one of these, except in the far north, where machetes are used a fair bit.
Of course, on national holidays and Día de la Tradición (a day honouring the old ways) there are endless parades all over the country of decked out campesinos with ornate puñals and facons, furnished with cheap German silver, worn in the traditional manner, all this overseen by the local `estancia' owners and sundry dignitaries similarly decked out, but with far more upmarket knives and tailor made costumes . Once the holiday is over, all this apparel goes back into the cupboard.
Even Domenech, in one of his books, concedes that nowadays, with the ornate Creole knife the blade is secondary to its appearance, so this tells us what it is all about.
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I asked Abel for an article for this forum about this subject, and he generously accepted my petition.
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Great news, and allow me to thank you on behalf of all of us. It will make an extremely valuable contribution to this most interesting variety of knives.
Cheers
Chris
PS Sent you a PM