Knife with a Spanish Influence?

[Ian]

Rob, no question that the sheath of the original post resembles sheaths from Luzon. However, the resemblance is not entirely convincing for me. In particular, the decorative area showing a face and radiating rays is atypical of Filipino work IMHO. The attachment with an angled strip across the sheath and two rings to attach a belt is an arrangement seen on knives from Laguna and other areas in Luzon, as you have shown with those examples.

Since the sheath does not fit the knife in the usual fashion, then I think we need to discard the sheath when identifying the knife's origin.

[RobT]

Ian,

A sun with a face and eight rays was on the flag of the Philippine resistance against the Spanish (and later the US). I count eight rays on the sun on the sheath (three on the top, three on the bottom, one fat one at 9 o’clock and another fat one [partially obscured] at 3 o’clock). The rays at 3 and 9 o’clock are short by necessity and I believe that they are fat to give them prominence. If the sheath was decorated during the Philippine resistance period, it is quite old and quite a find.
Regardless of area of origin, my point in my initial response was that the sheath is from the Philippines. That being said, I wouldn’t be too quick to discard the notion that the knife is also. As I said in my initial response, I don’t see anything about the knife itself (design, construction, materials) that would rule it out as having been made in the Philippines. It easily could have been made for a Filipino who wanted a Spanish style knife or it could have been made for a Spaniard living in the Philippines. An old leather sheath can shrink enough so that the blade it was made for no longer fits. Other plausible explanations: Somebody in the Philippines had a knife and and a sheath that fit together well enough (albeit backwards) for carry. Somebody in the Philippines had a knife for sale and paired it with a sheath to make it more marketable (as is done all the time by sellers in the US).

Sincerely,
RobT

[Lee]

Thank you gentlemen for your comments and insights. Though the knife and the sheath clearly did not start together, both show some age and neither shows evidence of meddling that I can discern aside from evidence of many rehonings.

Here attached are two additional views that I neglected to include in the original post.

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by RobT

Ian,

A sun with a face and eight rays was on the flag of the Philippine resistance against the Spanish (and later the US). I count eight rays on the sun on the sheath (three on the top, three on the bottom, one fat one at 9 o’clock and another fat one [partially obscured] at 3 o’clock). The rays at 3 and 9 o’clock are short by necessity and I believe that they are fat to give them prominence. If the sheath was decorated during the Philippine resistance period, it is quite old and quite a find.
Regardless of area of origin, my point in my initial response was that the sheath is from the Philippines. That being said, I wouldn’t be too quick to discard the notion that the knife is also. As I said in my initial response, I don’t see anything about the knife itself (design, construction, materials) that would rule it out as having been made in the Philippines. It easily could have been made for a Filipino who wanted a Spanish style knife or it could have been made for a Spaniard living in the Philippines. An old leather sheath can shrink enough so that the blade it was made for no longer fits. Other plausible explanations: Somebody in the Philippines had a knife and and a sheath that fit together well enough (albeit backwards) for carry. Somebody in the Philippines had a knife for sale and paired it with a sheath to make it more marketable (as is done all the time by sellers in the US).

Agree with you Rob. I also think that the leather scabbard is from Luzon, Philippines. And also what you stated about the sun symbol from the resistance time, I agree, it's a nice find. But I have problems allocating the knife to the Philippines but I won't rule it out on the other hand.

Regards,
Detlef