[A. G. Maisey]

Tim, when I first saw this, and before any comments were made, I had a flash of Central European --- Austrian, Hungarian, Polish.

No logical basis for this, just a feeling.

I've seen that double guard arrangement somewhere, but I can't remember where. I've been through all the books I have available, and that took me a couple of nights. The only knife I could find that had any sort of similarity to this was in the Hollander cutlery collection, and that was a French knife for cutting candy. The raised section on the back of the French knife was for taking the blows needed to drive the blade through hard candy.

When all we can see is just the outline of the knife, without knowing the geometry of the blade, its size and so on, it seems to me to be too big an ask to be able to say what it is.

I agree that the engraving does not look typically Western European, but I cannot find any similar engraving amongst the African examples I've looked at, either.

I guess a couple of years down the track somebody will be able to enlighten us all, and we'll find out that its a knife used by farmers in Central Slobovia for sectioning sides of Slobovian sausage --- or something.

Something that should be considered is the fact that it appears to have a full tang going right through the hilt and anchored at the pommel with a nut, or perhaps piened over. You do not use this construction on a knife unless it is intended to withstand some pretty heavy work. For light usage, a stub tang set in adhesive is good enough. Nope, this is designed as a serious tool. But for what, and from where?

I reckon that the engraving was done prior to heat treat, which means the engraving was done during manufacture, not after. Heat treated steel is too hard for simple manual engraving. So whoever made the thing also arranged, or did, the engraving.