Shabria Dagger

[TVV]

Conogre, I believe you are referring to the topic, to which I posted a link. In it, Artzi had put a picture of 10 shabrias, but after some changes to his website, the picture currently appears to be gone. This is too bad, as a few of them were really nice examples.

[Aurangzeb]

Hi Tim!

That is the Funniest story I have ever heard ! I have heard some pretty bad stories some sellers make up abouta item,but this by far takes the cake ...Considering brass is a terrible gun making material(To soft of a metal.).

Bye

[Aurangzeb]

Hi All!

Thanks for the help so far.The thing I am really concerned withis that:

A.) Is my estimation of it's age correct or not.(1930's or 1940's)
B.) Is my guess at it's provence of origen correct or not.(Palestine)

Thanks again for the help so far!

[ariel]

I don't know about your A question.
As to the B one, you are correct: a very, very typical Palestinian jambiya (shabariyya). They continue making them for the tourist market to this day.
This brings us back to A: I do not think anybody can establish it's accurate age with certainty. It would depend mostly on it's condition: older ones (say, before 195O) and will show some wear, the newer ones (bazaar pieces) will be quite pristine. Please remember: these are pretty rough and quite primitive weapons, with a lot of grinding marks, bad soldering, bends, kinks, uneven surfaces, holes etc. These can be confused with signs of aging, so be careful.
All in all, a very nice piece. If you start collecting at 13, you may get a real museum by 30.... I wish I could have started as early.....
All the best!

[Aurangzeb]

Thanks you very much Ariel, I very much appreciate all of the information you have provided to me regarding my Shabriyaa dagger ! Upon further, more intensive inspection of this dagger, I have found that in fact the front of the dagger and sheath are formed of silver, not tin as originally thought. My father checked it with too strong of a magnet that was actually being attracted to the tin back and thus givng the illusion that the front was also tin. I used a much weaker magnet and found no magnetic attraction to the frontal area of the dagger handle of sheath face ! The blade does show slight wear and tear from use, the sheath and handle are slightly dented. The back of the handle shows much discoloration of the tin surface from use. The blade exhibits longer and narrower qualities which seem to indicate that it is 'older', not of recent crafting. The throat of the sheath shows 'English' alphabet characters which leads me to believe it may be from the time Palestine was occupied by British Forces under British mandate. It shows much better qualities than most tourist pieces I have encountered. Can you please tell me if these were worn on the front of the belt like a Jambiya ? Perhaps this information will better qualify it's possible origination, your thoughts, as well a those of other forum members would be most welcomed and appreciated !

Thank you very much !

Mark.... a.k.a. Aurangzeb....

[tom hyle]

Actually, a great many old cannon and even handguns (particularly bluderbusses) were made of brass/bronze/coppery stuff, and in fact the term "gun metal", so commonly referring to blued steel in modern N America, originally (and thus arguably properly) refers to a certain copper alloy commonly so used in Europe. Cortes even got Maya copper casters to make him cannon. Believe it or not, a lot of early cannon (bombards, I think they were called) were even wooden (with metal bands). I like these shabrias, and though I didn't think it appropriate to argue concerning mine after I'd asked opinions on it, I will tell you that I consider this an excellent example of the misuse of the term "tourist" dagger. These are modern shabrias, in the current (post wwII?) style; plain and simple. Mine is nicely made with a sharp forged diamond section blade, and is no rougher in its construction or finish than expected on "tribal" level pieces; I'd venture to say the same of yours. I haven't handled mine in a while, but I think the blade's surface was filed to finish. Typically they bear a nice native cutler's mark, which it seems is typically a name and date(?) Light and strong, they are designed and constructed in such a way as to be useful for violence and for work, and the metal clad construction seems to me to have come from more Southern Arab influence, the earlier ones having horn "scale" handles with somewhat of a khinzalish look, as I recall.

[Aurangzeb]

Hi Tom!

Thanks for your help.My dagger to is filed finish now that I know what those lins on it are,when I first got it I thought it was the maker went scratch happy on the lower part of the blade! So my piece is not a tourist pice in the way I think of it?(made for the visitors like some koummya's in Morroco.)So my dagger is recent(1946 to present),but is not made for visiters.But instead is made by a arab for his own use.Do you think it is pre formation of Isreal or post?

Thanks again for the help!