Navajas of the Galleons

[Chris Evans]

Originally Posted by Dmitry

Chris, thanks for the explanation.Looks like I have succumbed to the false notion that locking navajas were the norm. I guess the romantic sea novelsa re not a good source of credible information. :-)

Well, you are not alone as Forton himself tells us so, but I beg to differ as his assertion does not stand up to critical scrutiny.

The problem with navajas is that like the creole/gaucho knives, they became national cultural icons and all kinds of myths have been created about them. Now it is the devil's own job trying to sort out the facts from fiction.

A further problem is one that we as collectors have created for ourselves. We instinctively go for the glamour pieces and ignore the banal - With time this acts as a filter and only these items end up surviving in collections creating the impression that they were normative, rather than the exception.

Cheers
Chris