Lew Waldman's Ethnographic Arms & Armour Collection Archive


231 - African (Congo) Mangbetu Trumbash (Sickle Knife)

The iron blade is of beaked form and sharp around the end from one hexagonal lug to the other. Two circular perforations are present in a blade with a thickened forte and spine along and just in from the straighter edge. A wooden hilt is lenticular in cross section for the part adjacent to the blade's forte and round within a channel and towards the end of the hilt where an upset tang is present. Lew's notes estimate a dating from 1900 - 1920. This trumbash weighs 19 ounces and has an overall length of 14 1/2 inches and a blade length of 8 1/8 inches.




Return to item index page