8th September 2006, 04:15 PM | #1 |
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Small collection of African daggers
I found these daggers this morning near our town's antique market and got a real sweet deal
In my opinion, all these daggers are from Central Africa (probably Congo or neighbouring countries). Some are quite intresting as I have difficulty in determining them. They all are quite old with a nice patina on the wooden handles. I will put some detailed pictures of all the knives on the forum. Here is the lot ! Perhaps some else got a clue ? |
8th September 2006, 04:22 PM | #2 |
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? ? ?
Here is the first knife (I'll start from the left)
It's total length is 36 cm with a narrow blade (max. 2,5 cm) measuring 20,5 cm. The knife also has an unusual long handle, made of wood with some iron binding near the blade. This one is a puzzle to me. |
8th September 2006, 04:25 PM | #3 |
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This small dagger is probably from the Azande tribe in Congo.
Total length is 26,5 cm with a blade measuring 17,8 cm. The middle of the blade is decorated with a dotted line (on both sides) which I have seen on Yakoma knives. |
8th September 2006, 04:30 PM | #4 |
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? ? ?
The third knife is probably the oldest one. On it, I found a little label with '19th century' written on it. The blade is real heavy. At first, it looked like a spear blade, converted into a dagger. But the blade has a tang, which is unusual for Central African spear blades.
I have no clue from which tribe this could be. Total length is 33 cm with a blade measuring 24 cm (without tang). The wooden handle is entirely covered with copper binding. |
8th September 2006, 04:32 PM | #5 |
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The fourth knife is also Azande, with a nice leather sheath.
Total lengt is 31,5 with a blade measuring 19,7 cm. In my opinion, the wooden handle was once partially covered with some kind of binding. |
8th September 2006, 04:34 PM | #6 |
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The last knife, I didn't have the time yet to do some research. But here is it anyway.
Total length : 38 cm. A wooden handle with iron and copper binding and also some copper nails. |
8th September 2006, 07:15 PM | #7 |
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It's good to live in Belgium! Nice finds
Lew |
8th September 2006, 10:34 PM | #8 |
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Joli lot Freddy !
Luc |
10th September 2006, 07:25 PM | #9 |
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I was able to identify the third and last dagger I described. Here they are again :
I had a look around on http://www.mambele.be/ and I think these two daggers can be attributed to the following tribes from Congo : Ngombe, Doko, Ngbandi or Mbudja. As to the dagger with the slender blade, I'm still guessing. Does anyone has a suggestion ? It would be much appreciated. |
11th September 2006, 05:44 PM | #10 |
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Pretty sure the skinny one is Ngombe etc. The grooved handle and grooved wrap resemble those on (especially "legged") swords such as mambele.
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