markings on "mongolian" knife

[Timo Nieminen]

Uighur/Uyghur knife. I haven't seen one with such a chicken head before; lots of them have a pommel that might be stylised bird (perhaps even a chicken).

The scabbard is common for modern tourist Uighur knives. I don't think it's traditional.

Some relevant past threads:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=17377
http://www.vikingsword.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001565.html

[blue lander]

The sheath is definitely very modern. The leather is actually fairly nice, but the belt loop is made from a thin strip of vinyl or something. I thought it might have been added afterwards, why would they make a leather sheath and not bother with a leather belt loop? But the stitching for the sheath and the loop are the same, so it must have been made this way. I've attached a photo of the loop as well as a closer look at the chicken or whatever on the handle. The handle would actually be large enough to be usable if it wasn't for the spikes on the back.

Looping back to the Mongolia angle, I've asked my in-laws over there to send me an "authentic" knife, the oldest they can find. Hopefully they won't end up sending me a souvenir quality one like this.