Nice pesh kabz
 

It was a sleeper on ebay. It was a beauty in his days. quite hard to fing painted ivory hilts nowadays. Blade is probably wootz?

North india mid 18th century, Afghanistan, or Persian mid-qajar?

Wow, nice found. Congrats! Clean it carefully and etch the blade to find out if it is wootz.

Thanks Henk. How should I etch it?
Any other comments?

Lovely dagger!
If you etch it make sure you put a resist on the koftgari area or you'll lose some or all of the gold.

I've got a nice Pesh Kabz myself and have often thought 'is it wootz'?

Valjhun,

Etch with hot vinegar. I also would clean the blade with vinegar to get rid of the rust. As far as I can judge from the pictures it is surface rust that should disappear very easily. Leave the grip and painting as it is.

Vinegar for cleaning and etching is not very agressive, but Atlantia has a point. Be careful with the koftgari. Although I never had problems with cleaning a blade with gold inlay in this way. Just rub gently and with soft materials. You could use the peel of an orange.

acid does not effect gold only silver or brass.nail polish or wax acts as a resist. You only want to etch the panel on the blade anyway

Although that's of course true, the gold can be loosened or lost completely if the acid can start to get underneath the edges. Which is what I meant.
It depends on the quality of the koftgari, and the quality of the steel, but I would still advise some caution with those areas. Especially when the Koftgari is worn and quite fine.
Nail polish is a good idea. Especially if you're using a hot solution as suggested. Or for slow but safe, wax and lemon juice, then boiling water to take the wax off.

I'm interested that nobody has ventured a guess as to if the dagger is wootz or not yet? Any thoughts?