North African Knife - HELP !
 

Hello All!

I just bought this knife today at a WWII reanactment. It is 9" overall with a 5" blade and a 4" hilt. The hilt is made of two pices of horn seperated by a metal spacer and capped with a iron cap on the end. The blade is sharp and shows old surface rust. It was spattered with a littel red paint(not blood :D ) here and ther but it came off really easily.I think it is North African, maybe it might be Libyan, Egyptian, or Sudanese. But I would like some more advice on that! :D I think it is Mid 20th century. Any comments are welcome! I have three more knives to post in the next few days.

Mark...

Hi, Mark. If were a gambling man, I would put my money on Ethiopia. It really looks Ethiopian to me. But, in all fairness, could be ANYTHING. At any rate, here is the pictures of two Ethiopian daggers and a sword. The shape of the blades of the daggers and that of the hilt of the sword point me in that direction. Cheers, RON

Hi Mark,
I completely agree with Ron, these daggers remain widely in use throughout North Africa, and are equally widely diffused via trade routes as they have always been. In my view, the bottom example Ron has shown has compelling resemblance, and may be considered a likely match at least typologically. As for exact provenance, that would be extremely difficult. In any case, a simple but interesting item.
Best regards,
Jim

Thanks for the quick identification! This is my first Ethiopean knife! :) Could the hilt be rhino horn, is there any way to tell? Thanks again.

Mark...

Sorry... you will have to live with the fact that it is "cow". As in the three examples that I posted earlier. Nothing wrong with that. It would be a nice dagger even with a plain wood handle.

I'm cool with cow! :D How would this type of dagger be worn? Is it a type of arm dagger? Is there a proper name for this type of knife? Do you think I have the age right? Sorry about all the questions!

Mark....

It's a belt dagger. Only terms I know for this are KARRA' (Tigrai & Eritrea) and CHIUVE' (Sidamo). I think the Amhara use the term KARRA' as well, but I am not positive.