Sarajevo knife and fork.

[Battara]

What is the meaning of the green color in the bone pieces?

[Dmitry]

Originally Posted by Battara

What is the meaning of the green color in the bone pieces?

Just something different, possibly made to imitate the color of a mineral, like malachite.

[gp]

Originally Posted by Battara

What is the meaning of the green color in the bone pieces?

my guess is contamination by the copper rings due to bad storagein a humid place, but I can give a better reply once I have received them and cleaned / restored them.
I have seen it with some bichaqs of my collections before.
The green ones are complete green and do not show this kind of deterioration; they look like the above ones or the attached one
Folks handle swords with care, daggers also but the smaller items get often less care, specially these kind of cutlery.


Please bear with me....and I answer when I'll get them

[Battara]

Yes I'm not talking about a green hue like oxidized copper, but when the bone is dyed green.

[Saracen]

Yes, I'm interested in it too. What is the meaning of the green color of the hilts ?

[gp]

I just recceived them yesterday; as I thought..they were in poor condition, very dirty.
It took some time to get the dirt of it, next to the fact that due to poor storage and the copper ornaments being close together, the corrossion / oxidation went unfortunately also deep into the white bone grip.
Although I could clean some of it during a few days and using several methods, still some green contamination remained. I do not want to "clean" them any further as it might have a negative impact on the structure of the bone and cause other unwanted damage....I added some other forks to compare the looks from a color perspective

The green color of the knife above # 19 is just a layer added to the bone hilt, which is normal applied to the Bosnian small knives and bichaqs and sold to dignitaries or tourist after the occupation and later annexation by Austria in 1878. No green ones before that period during the Ottoman rule...

Root cause for this dark green in # 19 was simple another form of decoration but no other reason ; you can peel it of. A couple of damaged pieces on green ones I have show this clearly. nothing of the latter can be found in the literature of the last 200 years and nor have yataghans ever been made in that color ; only the bjelo (white) and crno (black) ones....

With literature I mean not only the Western literature but also the literature from the Balkan countries since 1878.

Remarkable with this set is the fact that although the total lenght is the same, the fork piece versus the blade is not. Something which doesn't occur in this way with the other sets from the handle / grip lenght ( knife gripis almost half the fork grip lenght)