A curious north african knife

fennec · 7th July 2025, 01:24 AM

Hi mates, and particularly Detlef, how are you my friend ? Sorry for those silent times, life was... eventful

Well, yep, genuine bousaadi knife, "khodmi" (knife) from Bousaada (algeria). This one is the classic one, not the bigger ones displayed by detlef (that I call now "mouss sahraoui", or "khodmi sahraoui", also from bousaada craftsmanship, but that we find everywhere in south algeria, even in touaregs areas since the 18century, in my last searches).
So yours, is not the longers ones, that are also called "couteau à lame triangulaire" by Eric CLAUDE due to their shape. Yours has the typical shape of a bousaadi, but look to have lost its wiring...
I cant see as well, but in this case, it is only attached with just one metal pin, so without the wire, the tang can moove, and so the blade too. However, you have here a nice and old model, reputed in algeria for their cutting qualities for centuries.

Please dont ask me about those marks, as Ive said in another post, just let me finish my book about algerian weapons first

(it took me more thant 10pages to just try to search a meaning about some marks that are today mostly losts... but to make very quick and simple, what YOU have here, is PROBABLY the local interpretation/copy, between a lot, of some europeans marks you can find on some german or italian swords of the 15/16century, as a proof of quality of those knives... like "see, this knife is stamp like an italian sword"... So yeah, this one is probably from those ones, but you also have a lot of local marks, from a crafsman or family of crafstman, tribe, or refering to local believes and symbols).

7th July 2025, 01:24 AM	#6
fennec Member Join Date: Feb 2023 Location: France Posts: 15	Hi mates, and particularly Detlef, how are you my friend ? Sorry for those silent times, life was... eventful Well, yep, genuine bousaadi knife, "khodmi" (knife) from Bousaada (algeria). This one is the classic one, not the bigger ones displayed by detlef (that I call now "mouss sahraoui", or "khodmi sahraoui", also from bousaada craftsmanship, but that we find everywhere in south algeria, even in touaregs areas since the 18century, in my last searches). So yours, is not the longers ones, that are also called "couteau à lame triangulaire" by Eric CLAUDE due to their shape. Yours has the typical shape of a bousaadi, but look to have lost its wiring... I cant see as well, but in this case, it is only attached with just one metal pin, so without the wire, the tang can moove, and so the blade too. However, you have here a nice and old model, reputed in algeria for their cutting qualities for centuries. Please dont ask me about those marks, as Ive said in another post, just let me finish my book about algerian weapons first (it took me more thant 10pages to just try to search a meaning about some marks that are today mostly losts... but to make very quick and simple, what YOU have here, is PROBABLY the local interpretation/copy, between a lot, of some europeans marks you can find on some german or italian swords of the 15/16century, as a proof of quality of those knives... like "see, this knife is stamp like an italian sword"... So yeah, this one is probably from those ones, but you also have a lot of local marks, from a crafsman or family of crafstman, tribe, or refering to local believes and symbols).