Facón / Gaucho Knife from Uruguay

[gp]

I just managed to buy a facón from Uruguay from a seller in South America. See enclosed pics . Details:

Cuchillo de acero inoxidable hoja Trompeta con mango y vaina de metal blanco
Cuchillo con botón Uruguayo vaina trabajada con flores y arabescos , en las fotografías se aprecian los detalles del trabajo
En buenas condiciones
Medidas largo total con vaina 23,5 cm aprox
largo total sin vaina 22 cm aprox
largo de la hoja 12,3 cm aprox
ancho de la hoja en su parte mas ancha 1,7 cm aprox
ancho del lomo 2,5 mm aprox

Now I am awaiting the arrival and having several ones from Brazil and Arginentina, this is my first from Uruguay.

My question to you forum guys:

are the ones from Uruguay rare or hard to find ?

as I never stumbled on an Uruguayan before in the last 5 years or even more

[RobT]

gp,

Hopefully Chris Evans will weigh in. Until then, I will tell you what I have read. Because it is stamped "INOX" (stainless), your knife was made after the first quarter of the 20th century. FANACU (Fábrica Nacional de Cuchilleria) in Uruguay made these type of knives under the trade name of "Franz Wenk Solingen". I would imagine that there were other Uruguayan cutlers making similar knives.

Sincerely,
RobT

[gp]

Originally Posted by RobT

gp,

Hopefully Chris Evans will weigh in. Until then, I will tell you what I have read. Because it is stamped "INOX" (stainless), your knife was made after the first quarter of the 20th century. FANACU (Fábrica Nacional de Cuchilleria) in Uruguay made these type of knives under the trade name of "Franz Wenk Solingen". I would imagine that there were other Uruguayan cutlers making similar knives.

Sincerely,
RobT

Thank you very much Rob; highly appreciated!

FYI: there is some info on this website to be found
http://www.vikingsword.com/ethsword/facon/criollo.html
but it doesn't specify on the issue if a Uruguayan is rare or not to find unfortunately

[Lee]

I suspect that they are not especially rare. I came across this pair on separate occasions at gun shows in the USA, though likely around a decade ago.

[Sajen]

Hi Gunar,

Is the scabbard and handle silver plated or from German silver? I guess that your example is from the mid. of 20th century. I have a very similar example which I guess is a little bit older, scabbard and handle are thick silver plated, I have shown it in this thread: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=28632
Compare the bird at the scabbard foot.

Best regards,
Detlef

[gp]

Yours is indeed beautiful, Detlef !

To answer your question on silver or alpaca silver or silver plated, I have to wait until I hold it in my hands (which may take a couple of weeks as it just left South America and was send by Fedex; hence going first to the good ol’ U S of A as point of transshipment).

In my opinion mine might be made between 1950-1970, but it definitely originates from Uruguay. What I also noticed that one hardly see longer gaucho knives than 30 cm on offer for sales ; the long( er) ones you see on the pictures in the wide leather belts of the men .

LG aus NL

Gunar

[gp]

Double…

[gp]

Originally Posted by Lee

I suspect that they are not especially rare. I came across this pair on separate occasions at gun shows in the USA, though likely around a decade ago.

Thank you for your feedback. Thus most likely the reason why I didn’t see the ones from Uruguay that often in Europe might be perhaps that it is or was commercially not that interesting to either offer / sell them here or no actual demand, versus the ones from “ bigger “ countries like Argentina and Brazil…

BR

Gunar

[Chris Evans]

Hi `gp'

Going by the maker's brand and the `boton', I have the feeling that your knife was made by the Brazilian cutler Eberle which went out of business in 1984, being taken over by another company.

My guess us that the logo Eberle was polished out of the blade.

I looked around in Spanish and could not find anything on Trompeta brand.

Cheers
Chris