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Old 4th October 2016, 06:23 PM   #1
corrado26
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Default Scottish Skean Dhu

This morning the postman brought me a small package the content of which was very welcome: A Scottish Scean Dhu with a very sharp blade. Grip is ebony and the crown with a orange jewel (?) on top and the other mountings are made of silver. Total length is 205mm, blade is 97mm. Comments are invited.
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Old 4th October 2016, 07:00 PM   #2
Shakethetrees
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Beautiful piece!
The orange jewel is called a cairngorm. I'm not sure of the origin of the word, probably old Scottish.

I believe it is topaz or sometime smoky quartz if it's a more brownish color.
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Old 4th October 2016, 07:41 PM   #3
kronckew
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nice old sgian duhb (black knife), the cairngorm stone comes from : wait for it....

the cairngorm mountains area of scotland.

some traditional stones: cairngorm ones vary from a clear-ish yellow-brown to smokey quartz. there are other variants, gemstones, glass, crystals, plastic...
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Old 4th October 2016, 11:55 PM   #4
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Nice late 19th - early 20th century piece. It is in the same style as the Gordon Highlanders' Regiment.

The stone may also be glass - very common in these.
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Old 5th October 2016, 01:03 AM   #5
Sajen
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Battara
The stone may also be glass - very common in these.
I think that it is like Krockew write a cairngorm, some sort of smoky quartz found in the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoky_quartz

But of course it could be very well glass, to be sure I would show it to a jeweler.
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Old 5th October 2016, 07:26 AM   #6
corrado26
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Thanks for the many comments. To make sure I'll show the skean dhu to a jeweller. Very interesting is that this piece might be from a member of the Gordon Highlanders.
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