Sahelian knife

[Yvain]

Hi everyone !

I found this nice little sahelian knife today. I know it was "made for us", but the level of craftsmanship and price (half a pack of cigarettes, for those of us in Europe ) made me give in.

It obviously wasn't meant to be used, as the blade isn't sharpened at all (even if it seems to be made of older steel and not scrap metal).

The mounts are very refined, with some nice leather tooling and silverwork, or, at least, nicer than what I've usually seen on this type of knives.

The metallic parts seems to be made of a thin sheet of low grade silver over a structure of thicker brass. I was able to notice that as the sheath is a little damaged, as you will see in the picture (nothing terrible, and will be easily fixed).

As I've already seen on the higher end examples of this type of knives, it seems like the sheath chape bears a signature or makers mark.

I've already found this thread (http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...t=tuareg+knife) with a very similar knife, but I find the subject interesting and would like to learn more.

Who do you think made those knives ? When ? And why or for whom ?

An idea that I got, due to the high level of craftsmanship involved (at least way higher than on many "tourist" knives and dagger of Northern Africa), the use of a signature (or makers mark), and the general "Tuareg" look, is that those knives might have been made in the middle of the XXth century for the first european tourists, by legit Tuareg craftsmen from the Inaden group. But at this point, this is just guesswork, and I have nothing to substantiate this idea !

Anyway, I would love to hear what you have to say about it ! (And don't be afraid to be too harsh, it was cheap , and I told myself I would give it an edge and use it as a fancy side knife if it was a dud )