Some knives of Argentina that were posted in regard to distiction between facon and chucillo. These were offered by a fellow in Argentina during an internet discussion entitled
Dressed To Kill, refered to for a few years as the D2K debate and an article someone was writing (senior moment). Ah, here is the thread.
http://forums.swordforum.com/showthread.php?t=72872
I have in my small ethnic collection just one small punal, or chucillo. Mine was manufactured some time in the 20th century and is marked by a company named AE&Co. I have been unable to determine who that actually is but I run across a good many others with the mark and that of a knotted bugle on the blades.
What I was reading in to some of these discussions was that the facon themselves experienced pretty much the end of general carry during the late 19th century and that the small all metal punal/chucillo of the early and alter 20th century were more of an accessory. My example is of the smaller (10" overall) but I have seen some quite large that some might still refer to as a facon, as the size was truer to what was commonplace in the 19th century. However, the rather large blades of the kitchen chef knife profile were more refered to as a clavado. I guess the main determining factor was facon refered to a weapon, where clavado and chucillo were meant more as tools.
Cheers
Hotspur;
I failed loading these yesterday but it might work out ok now